Virgin Atlantic scraps domestic short-haul service

Virgin Atlantic said its domestic short-haul unit, Little Red, would cease operations in 2015, just over two years after it was launched.

The airline, which is 51 per cent owned by its British billionaire founder Richard Branson and 49 per cent owned by US carrier Delta Air Lines, said in a statement that Little Red had “not been able to make a positive contribution” to the company.

The Little Red service did not provide enough feeder traffic onto Virgin’s trans-Atlantic and international routes, the airline said on Monday.

Little Red will stop flying between London Heathrow and Manchester in March next year with its Heathrow to Edinburgh and Aberdeen flights ceasing six months after that.

- Reuters