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Virgin Atlantic to fly between Manchester and London

Virgin Atlantic have unveiled plans to fly between Manchester Airport and London Heathrow today.

The announcement of Virgin’s first short haul service in the UK came days after the Government’s refusal of Sir Richard Branson’s bid for the West Coast mainline train service.

Flights between the two cities will compete with the rail service that Branson lost out on, as well as feeding into Virgin’s long haul flights that go from the capital.

Visiting business passengers will be a key target audience for the new route, as Virgin hope to encourage customers onto flights to international business centres such as Hong Kong, Boston and Cape Town.

Branson’s organisation will compete with British Airways, who have an established flight path between Manchester and London.

Virgin Atlantic CEO, Steve Ridgway said: “Flying between Heathrow and Manchester is just the start for Virgin Atlantic’s new short haul operation.

“Our new service will provide strong competition to omnipresent BA; keep fares low and give consumers a genuine choice of airline to fly to Heathrow and beyond.”

Three daily flights from the North West city to London are available from today and will begin at the end of March 2013.

Manchester Airport welcomed the decision, and encouraged heightened competition for the route.

Ken O’Toole, Chief Commercial Officer at Manchester Airports Group, said: “We are pleased to see Virgin Atlantic increasing their presence in Manchester and to see competition returning on the London route, as that will be to the benefit of passengers flying from our airport.

“Virgin is already a strong carrier at the airport with long haul routes to Barbados, Orlando and Las Vegas and this move adds to their range of services for the North of England.

“We aim to support our airlines as they look to grow and we hope the success of Virgin’s domestic services will lead to further expansion at Manchester.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .