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Virgin Atlantic to end India service

Britain's Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd will stop flying to India from August and end its code-share arrangement with flag carrier Air-India, a spokeswoman for the Indian airline told Reuters on Tuesday.

Virgin Atlantic, which launched operations in India in July 2000, operates a twice-weekly service to London, using Air-India's unused flight entitlements on the India-UK route. Air-India uses only 11 of its 16 weekly entitlements on the sector.

"They (Virgin Atlantic) have served a termination notice that is effective August 12," the Air-India spokeswoman said on the phone from the airline's headquarters in Bombay.

Virgin Atlantic officials in New Delhi could not be reached for comment.

British businessman Richard Branson's Virgin Group owns 51 per cent of Virgin Atlantic, with Singapore Airlines Ltd owning the remaining 49 per cent.

For the Virgin Group, this will be the second Asian venture it plans to pull out of in just a few weeks. Last week, it announced it would end its mobile phone joint venture with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, eight months after its launch.

Last month, Richard Branson said that the airline's twice-weekly India service was not commercially viable and the company was frustrated at the blocks that had been put on its plans to expand its operations and add additional service to Mumbai.

Virgin Atlantic, has had plans to launch a third New Delhi-London service for over a year but has been unable to win Indian government approval.

The Indian government wants additional landing slots for Air-India at London's Heathrow airport in return, which it has been unable to obtain. Talks between the Indian and the UK governments over the issue last month ended without an agreement.

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