EDINBURGH, Scotland — The Virgin Atlantic Little Red flight from London to Edinburgh was a classic Virgin launch party. Flight attendants in signature red suits served champagne at the gate and whiskey on takeoff. And upon landing, Richard Branson disembarked and, flanked by grinning bagpipers, pulled up his kilt to show off shorts emblazoned with a message to British Airways: "stiff competition."
Virgin Atlantic, after 30 years of trying to start domestic service, is this month launching Little Red, its domestic U.K. service, which is now flying to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Manchester. Little Red will operate 26 flights a day from Heathrow to the three cities.
Little Red is part of Virgin’s efforts to grow by offering travelers on its long-haul routes additional end-to-end service.
The domestic flights will connect with more than 30 airlines; four carriers are already codesharing — Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, South African Airways and Cyprus Airways — with more expected to be added.
It also caters to its Virgin Atlantic passengers by making the transfer between terminals (long-haul flights are stationed in Terminal 3, the domestic service in Terminal 1) seamless: Virgin is transferring passengers on a special bus. Craig Kreeger, Virgin’s CEO, said he did that transfer in less than 20 minutes.
Virgin is working to move both domestic and long-haul flights to the same terminal, but that effort is in the very early planning stages.
Branson said that the acquisition of regional carrier British Midland International (BMI) by British Airways meant Virgin finally got a “few crumbs off the table” for Heathrow slots. British Airways had to divest itself of BMI slots after it acquired the airline.
“We’re delighted that we managed to pick up these slots,” said Branson, “and we think we will offer proper competition to BA on these routes, and we look forward to a long relationship with Scotland.”
Kreeger said that the new service is clearly resonating with Scottish consumers.
“We are seeing great bookings for New York, San Francisco and Tokyo,” he said.
Branson said that once consumers have an opportunity to try Virgin Atlantic’s service, “they stick.”
And one way to get more people on its planes is offer domestic service.
“We’ve had our hands tied behind our backs for 30 years,” he said.
Follow Kate Rice on Twitter @krtravelweekly.