Virgin Atlantic boosts UK regional links with Flybe codeshare

Virgin Atlantic has signed a codeshare agreement with Flybe for a network of routes connecting its London Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow operations with 18 regional airports in the UK and Western Europe. The move comes 6 months after Virgin halted its Little Red project, which used Airbus A320s leased from Aer Lingus to provide feeder traffic from Manchester, Edinburgh and Aberdeen to London. That experiment was stopped, partly because of low load factors and partly because it was discovered that many passengers were using Little Red purely as a point-to-point service, rather than connecting with Virgin Atlantic long-haul services. The new codeshare was announced simultaneously with Virgin Atlantic revealing that it will be starting new routes from Manchester to Boston and San Francisco. <br/>