Virgin Europe?

Did Virgin used to have a european "domestic" subsidiary/brand? Like VAmerica or VAustralia?

If not, will there be one soon? I read somewhere it got taken over by another airline.

Whats the best european airline for collecting VS airmiles? Is BMI the only pan european airline which accepts FC for earning miles.

Cheers!

[buns]

Yes, Virgin did used to fly to Brussels - I am sure somebody will come along with the details pretty soon.

Also they had a foray into the "holiday market" with "Virgin Sun"

buns

They used to have a scheduled/charter airline called 'Virgin Sun' back in the late 90's.

I never used it, but I'm sure some others on here have.

Some more info can be found here, although as always with wiki, no idea how accurate it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Sun_Airlines

Yes, Virgin did used to fly to Brussels - I am sure somebody will come along with the details pretty soon.

Also they had a foray into the "holiday market" with "Virgin Sun"

buns

Virgin Express used to fly from Brussels to the following destinations:

Heathrow
Gatwick
Stansted
Shannon
Barcelona
Copenhagen
Rome
Milan
Nice
Berlin
Faro

It then expanded its network before merging with SN Brussels Airlines to become Brussels Airlines.

[Nottingham Nick]

The airline Buns mentions that did the Brussels route was Virgin Express - it merged into, and was rebranded as Brussels Airlines a couple of years ago.

Virgin have a number of partner airlines, which can net FC points, but I think BMI is the best bet for European trips.

Nick

And here's a photo of a Virgin Express plane..

Also Virgin Atlantic used to operate themselves to Athens, using a A320 and latterly a A321 - was quite a random route really!

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Virgin-A ... 962de0e4f1


http://www.airliners.net/photo/Virgin-A ... 962de0e4f1

Also Virgin Atlantic used to operate themselves to Athens, using a A320 and latterly a A321 - was quite a random route really!

There was a 767 on that route at one time to. Here you go, found a pic. of one!

Does anyone know why Virgin used to opperate flights to Athens?
Just seems a little random really, unless there was a cruise ship market like they opperate to Puerto Rico now?

Of course, VS did at one time operate feeder flights in from BRU and DUB using BAE146's IIRC.



The history of VS to Athens has been discussed before and I remember doing a whole long thread on it.

Originally the route was actually operated by an airline called South East European Airlines (or Aviation I Cant remember). IIRC VS operated the flight on their behalf although by the late 90's VS actually made some agreement that they would operate the route on their own after South East went belly up. The A320 used to operate with a tiny SEEA logo and indeed I have a VS postcard showing ATH as a destination with the SEEA logo alongside the VS one.

There was a stage when VS seriously looked at expanding mid haul markets. They decided to ditch G-OUZO (the 320) replacing her with an A321 (G-VATH) and did even obtain rights to operate LHR-DME. I guess VS were really looking at the viability of expanding to those mid haul markets now served to by BD.

All of this was thrown in the air by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and shortly after the 321 was disposed of and ATH was dropped.

All of this was thrown in the air by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and shortly after the 321 was disposed of and ATH was dropped.

And yet midhaul, if you have the slots, could well be a lucrative market, no?

[Scrooge]

It can be, but slots are the issue, this was always the front running reason for BMI to team up with VS, using BMI to feed the VS long haul flights.

However, the time has pretty much passed for the that to work, VS relies on the London market to supply (yes mostly, sure there is a MAN market area as well)to supply the passengers for it's long haul flights.

So no, we won't be seeing much mid haul from VS (I would argue that Dubai is mid haul) in the future.