SCQ83 wrote:

I think Virgin Atlantic should be rebranded in something like Delta Atlantic UK or Delta Virgin or sth like that, and integrated in Skyteam.

IMO it would raise brand awareness both in the UK and US.

OMAAbound wrote:

As has been posted earlier, the slots for this will be used to work the second daily Boston flight.

As far as I am aware, the slots have been traded with another airline too accommodate the Boston.

It’s not known who these slots have been traded with, but the rumours doing the round in the office, is that it’s too do with the ‘Little Red’ service which was discontinued a few years ago. (Use your brain and it’s not hard to work out)

Hopefully this clears things up.

OMAA

Boeing74741R wrote:

SCQ83 wrote:

I think Virgin Atlantic should be rebranded in something like Delta Atlantic UK or Delta Virgin or sth like that, and integrated in Skyteam.

IMO it would raise brand awareness both in the UK and US.

I can't see that happening for as long as the Virgin Group still have a stake in VS.

There's also the challenge of brand awareness because Virgin as a brand has a greater household awareness/appeal in the UK compared to Delta. Obviously that's different in the USA, but then Virgin isn't exactly an unknown brand there.

ZuluTime wrote:

The Little Red slots for the Edinburgh and Aberdeen routes were obtained under the remedy slot process from British Airways. Those were returned to British Airways when Little Red was closed. Flybe has subsequently obtained slots for the same routes (although at different times) from BA as it is obliged to provide them under the process defined in the competition remedies accepted for the acquisition of bmi.

Little Red also flew to Manchester. No remedy slots were available to VS for Manchester and so VS' own slots which had been leased out to Aer Lingus since the 2008 cutbacks were recalled from EI to provide the three daily MAN-LHR flights. When Little Red closed, these remained VS slots. It also had another pair of late evening slots which were on lease to another carrier (now Cobalt).

VS used the morning LHR slot previously flown to/from Manchester on an additional transatlantic service.

The afternoon two sets of LHR slots for Manchester were then leased out to Iberia and are now with Vueling covering the evening LHR-LCG and LHR-BCN services.

The new Boston will sit on the La Coruna Vueling slots. The Dubai slots are then surplus to requirements to be leased out - whether to Vueling to keep La Coruna at Heathrow or elsewhere is not yet known.

DobboDobbo wrote:

LH658 wrote:

How is Virgin Manchester operations?

I think it's fair to say the picture is mixed.

On the one hand, the seat capacity continues to increase reasonably quickly on a year to year basis. They continue to open new routes (LAX) and increase frequencies to existing ones (LAS, BOS). There is a partnership with Jet, and a clear desire to route India-USA traffic via MAN. It is not unreasonable to think that VS might launch MAN-DEL (if Jet do not do so beforehand).

On the other hand, there are clear issues caused by VS's B789 problems, many of the new routes remain seasonal and relatively low (3-4x weekly) frequency. Even the thicker routes (e.g. ATL/JFK) have low winter frequency because of the need to use the B744 in the short term. Also, it looks like SFO has been cut in favour of LAX but this has not been officially confirmed (as far as I can tell although this may be wrong).

In summary, the long term prospects for VS at MAN look fairly positive and MAN can expect a reasonable growth in frequencies and route options from VS - particularly TATL. It may be that the JV sees a niche that can be exploited, and I'd not be surprised if KE add MAN to their network in the next year or two. However, for this to be realised, the B789 issue needs a positive resolution as the A333/332 fleet is pretty much ideal for the Manchester market.

Hope this helps.

LH658 wrote:

Surprised BA doesn't have well established destination choice from BHX, MAN, NCL, EDI, and etc after all it called British Airways.

Andy33 wrote:

LH658 wrote:

Surprised BA doesn't have well established destination choice from BHX, MAN, NCL, EDI, and etc after all it called British Airways.

Why is it acceptable behaviour for a US airline not to provide nonstop international flights from every city but to use a hub system instead, and not for a UK one?

LH658 wrote:

Surprised BA doesn't have well established destination choice from BHX, MAN, NCL, EDI, and etc after all it called British Airways. Virgin should take efforts on making MAN a better hub. Flying into MAN and taking train to London is cheaper anyways than flying DFW to LHR direct.

B-HOP wrote:

For the 22:30 departure slot, I would expect an extra to either HKG or Shanghai or a mix of two with morning arrivals back at LHR 2 days later, HKG, with better connection time from VA from both MEL/SYD, maybe able to support a second flight, with either JNB/MIA to move to one of the West Coast flights slots and 1 of the West coast flights move to take the original 4 pm arrival slots, or else, they could attempt ACC again, but apart from these two, not much use for US flights

gunnerman wrote:

BA used to operate flights from various UK airports. There was a sizeable operation at MAN including flights to JFK. There was an engineering base there as well. It was all closed years ago and even LGW-MAN was axed. Now MAN is just a regional airport with flights from LHR.

BA is LHR and LGW plus LCY for BA CityFlyer. It is why BA is sometimes called London Airways.

LH658 wrote:

Other airline operate out of MAN and BHX just figured some more long haul options.

Cunard wrote:

LH658 wrote:

Other airline operate out of MAN and BHX just figured some more long haul options.

Can you possibly reword your post as I'm having difficulties trying to understand what your actually referring to!

GRJGeorge wrote:

B-HOP wrote:

For the 22:30 departure slot, I would expect an extra to either HKG or Shanghai or a mix of two with morning arrivals back at LHR 2 days later, HKG, with better connection time from VA from both MEL/SYD, maybe able to support a second flight, with either JNB/MIA to move to one of the West Coast flights slots and 1 of the West coast flights move to take the original 4 pm arrival slots, or else, they could attempt ACC again, but apart from these two, not much use for US flights

Is the current schedule for the 2nd daily JNB flight to be launched end of October ideal, with different advantages over the current flight? I know it will arrive in JNB very early and spend a very long time there...won't it be better to rather have a later departure from LHR (like 22:30 departure then)?