Virgin Atlantic loses faith in Open Skies

Virgin Atlantic has declared that it’s former plans for business class only flights between Europe and America are ‘too risky’ in the face of a future where the Open Skies agreement might one day be reversed. The airline has withdrawn it’s plans to offer exclusively executive service.

Previously, Virgin was planning to offer all-business class flights between New York and locations in Europe such as London, Paris, Milan, Zurich, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. The flights were going to start at the end of next year, after the new Open Skies agreement was in place and preparations had been made.

“There is a real likelihood that open-skies will be reversed in 2010,” said Paul Charles, director of communications at Virgin, explaining Virgin’s new decision.

Now that things have changed for Virgin, airplane manufacturers may find themselves short of business. It is rumored that the airline was in negotiations with Boeing, Airbus and Embraer for all-business class airplanes worth £350 million.

Instead, the airline is considering increasing the number of business class seats on existing planes. “This would mean hundreds more seats going into the market,” Mr Charles said.

Three airlines already specialize in business class only flights. Eos, Silverjet and Maxjet most likely welcomed the news but will still face competition as British Airways breaks into the transatlantic business-class only market.

www.virgin-atlantic.com