The Anonymous Widower

Is Virgin Atlantic Closing Little Red?

The Sunday Times is leading the Business section, with an article that is saying that Virgin Atlantic is closing Little Red.

I always thought it was an ambitious plan, especially as the airline doesn’t go to Glasgow. This might seem a mistake, but remember Virgin Trains go to Scotland’s biggest city, where probably most London-bound travellers live.

Incidentally, I have only heard of one person, who has used the airline to get to Scotland and they live near Heathrow.

But after my experience with flying easyJet to Edinburgh, where it took as long as the train, due to security delays, I just wonder if flying to Scotland now, is a second class option to many travellers. As an example, one of my Edinburgh friends, who frequently travels down to London, always seems to use the train.

So you have to have a good reason to fly, such as your company is paying and you get the reward points.

Security delays are obviously a problem at some airports and these could get worse, unless terrorism worries actually reduce our desire for air travel substantially.

But two other factors probably have more effect; Manchester Airport and the trains.

Traffic at Manchester Airport has risen by nearly twenty percent in the last few years and this has been substantially helped by better rail connectivity across the North and to Glasgow.

So why would a Glaswegian spend more money to fly to Heathrow, when he or she can do the total journey quicker, by taking a convenient brand-new First TransPennine train to Manchester Airport and getting his flight from there?

But the trains are so much better at journeys a couple of stops short of a full London to Scotland journey. And how many Scots who live in the Central belt want to go to places other than London like Birmingham, Peterborough or Milton Keynes?

The trains are getting better each year and there seems to be no sign of the pace of the improvement slowing. Station upgrades at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Peterborough and Birmingham will be completed and extra paths for more trains will be available, as alternative routes for freight trains become available. The real game-changer will happen at the end of this decade, when in-cab signalling becomes available, allowing the trains to increase maximum speeds from 125 mph to 140 mph.

Presently the fastest London Glasgow trains take four and a half hours, but the improvements could deliver a time around four hours.

As Virgin obviously have all the figures for both train and plane to Scotland, if they are closing Little Red, I suspect it was somewhat of a no-brainer.

September 7, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Airports, Scotland, Trains, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Trains