Virgin Atlantic Explores New Corporate Options

<B>Virgin Atlantic Explores New Corporate Options</B>

By David Jonas

<I>New York</I> - Virgin Atlantic, with a renewed Upper Class and expanded frequencies across the Atlantic, increasingly is becoming a top choice to London for some corporations. Listening to suggestions from corporate travel managers, the U.K. carrier also will start testing a ticketless Web-based prepurchase program.

"One corporate client here will pay us up front for next year's business, so we'd just keep note of the numbers of people who came and deduct it from the up-front amount," said Virgin chairman Sir Richard Branson in an exclusive interview with BTN. "There definitely are some corporates pushing bulk prepurchases. Whatever a corporate wants, we'll adapt."

Branson added that Virgin's market share between New York and London has reached 25 percent, topping United and closing in on American and British Airways. "We now have services to the major cities in the world, so corporates can choose us as a favorite carrier," he said.

Branson last week launched Virgin's new Upper Class (BTN, Sept. 18), now available between London and Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. All transatlantic routes will offer the product by the end of next year. "Virgin now has a whole mess of things in business class that our rivals don't have," he said.

New flights will include daily service from London Gatwick to Toronto starting next June, and more flights between London Heathrow and New York and Washington. "The transatlantic can still be very profitable if you deliver a product people want and if you get high load factors," Branson added, citing 80 percent transatlantic load factor over the past 12 months.