Think this may be in the wrong part of the forums but still given the rather infrequent use of the VK forum I can understand posting it here.
Reuters are saying in their business section that the VK will be going by the end of the month.
I am not sure where exactly I stand on this decision. When VK first started everything looked so great. VS damp leasing aicraft to them, ensuring that the VK brand was in a way similar to that of the VS, a lovely order for some brand new jungle jets and a rather impressive international network coupled with the use of the international terminal at LOS for all flights. THen it seemed to go rather downhill, VS stopped damp leasing aircraft meaning VK had to resort (eventually) to a horrid Latvian 763 that looked on the inside like something out of the 1980s rather than an aircraft associated with the Virgin brand, the government/SRB started playing silly beggers over the use of the international terminal, the government deciding to be even sillier by apparently trashing the VK lounge at LOS and slowly but surely the international network was dropped. Having said that the domestic side of things still seems to be working very well.
I think the use of the Virgin brand was to create a truly international airline at LOS (essentially what Arik Fly have managed), the lack of flights direct to the US surely didn't help the carrier and the decision to take on EK on LOS-DXB. It almost seems to be redundant amongst Virgin branded airlines now and possibly as a result VS have lost a bit of interest in the carrier.
VK has done a job. It managed to change Nigerian aviation through the use of a powerful brand. Sadly VK Arik as done the same thing and better without the help of VS. May be it was a mind set amongst the managers at Crawley and the attitudes of VK staff in LOS, who knows. One thing I have gleaned from various aviation sites is that both VS management and the people left to take charge of a rebranded VK are breathing a very big sigh of relief.
