Virgin Atlantic will cease operating its domestic Little Red service next year. The daily London Heathrow-Manchester route will stop at the end of March 2015, while Little Red’s Heathrow to Edinburgh and Aberdeen flights will continue until September 2015.
Little Red was launched in March 2013, with a key objective to provide a feeder service to Virgin Atlantic’s long-haul network. In June this year, CAA figures showed that Little Red was operating flights that were on average 60% empty.
Virgin Atlantic Chief Executive Craig Kreeger said: “We really wanted Little Red to be a success, and everyone involved worked extremely hard and has given it their best efforts. It was always a huge challenge on behalf of the consumer, as the totally inadequate number of slots made available by the European Commission did not deliver close to BA’s network position, even when supplemented by our own slots to fly between Heathrow and Manchester.
“The time lag between the takeover of BMI and our entering the market also meant Little Red initially faced an uphill battle to win recognition and convert customers to its services.”
Virgin Atlantic president Sir Richard Branson added: "When the competition authorities allowed British Airways to take over British Midland and all its slots, we feared there was little we could do to challenge BA’s huge domestic and European network built through decades of dominance. To remedy this, we were offered a meagre package of slots with a number of constraints on how to use them, and we decided to lease a few planes on a short-term basis to give it our best shot. The odds were stacked against us – and sadly we just couldn’t attract enough corporate business on these routes.”