Virgin Atlantic will be putting British Airways to the test in Europe as they open up their short-haul flights for that area later this week. Virgin Atlantic will be expanding over into Europe as part of their 25^th year anniversary.

The airline did offer some flights from London to Brussels under the Virgin Express subsidiary options. However, this was merged into SN Brussels Airlines by 2004 to make Brussels Airlines.

The planes that will be flying in the Virgin Atlantic Europe market will be full service business class planes. These are very different from the Virgin Express planes that people use to fly on under the subsidiary. Of course, a spokesman from Virgin Atlantic did make note that it was still too early to tell when the short haul flights for Virgin Atlantic would be offered. They also did not say which cities would be targeted first.

The goal of Virgin Atlantic is to give British Airways some competition. This is competition that Virgin Atlantic feels is “much needed.” During the closing months of 2008, Virgin Atlantic was looking into buying a stake from Bmi. This is the second largest airline that operates from Heathrow. However, Virgin Atlantic dropped out when Lufthansa agreed to pay £318 million for a controlling stake.

As of right now, British Airways owns almost 40 percent of all the take off and landing strips at Heathrow. Bmi is in second place with 12 percent of the take off and landing strips. However, a spokesman for British Airways said that they have no comments on any airline plans as of now.

source: Virgin Atlantic