Virgin Atlantic seeks Manchester push with Thomas Cook slots

Bloomberg

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd is looking to pick up operating slots at Manchester airport vacated by collapsed rival Thomas Cook Group Plc in a bid to grab a larger share of the travel market in northern England.
The airline is in contact with Airport Coordination Ltd, which allocates takeoff and landing positions in Manchester, with a view to adding more flights for summer 2020, Chief Executive Officer Shai Weiss said in an interview. As an interim step it will offer 30,000 extra seats from the city this winter.
Virgin could also expand at London Gatwick, the CEO said, though slots at the single-runway hub would be pricey and Thomas Cook’s timetable there featured sporadic departures less attractive than daily services. One option would be to target hard-to-come-by night-time flights for long-haul trips,
he said.
Weiss identified Manchester as key to growth after taking charge of the airline in January. Thomas Cook was the fourth-biggest carrier at the airport, which has a catchment of 22 million people within two hours’ drive.
It had around 24 daily slot pairs in the summer season, or 8 percent of the total, compared with Virgin’s 1.5 percent, excluding recently acquired regional operator Flybe Group Plc.
Some new flights at Manchester could be operated by Virgin’s partner and 49 percent owner Delta Air Lines Inc if the UK carrier first secures the slots, the CEO said.
Delta is already beginning daily flights from Manchester to Boston in May, marking its return to the airport, and Weiss said Virgin will open one of its trademark Clubhouse lounges at the English base in the spring.
The company announced plans for a more immediate boost to its Manchester schedules this winter with a third weekly frequency to Barbados and increased deployment of Boeing Co 747 jumbos to New York John F Kennedy International, lifting capacity on the route 65 percent year on year.
Virgin said it’s also looking at operating a greater number of flights to Orlando, Florida, during peak periods, describing the measures as a “first step” in ensuring customers from northern England continue to be served.
The company, founded by billionaire Richard Branson, has struggled to expand at its main London Heathrow hub, which has been operating close to capacity for years. Weiss revealed plans to add 84 extra destinations if the carrier can persuade UK authorities to give it more slots when a third runway is due to open next decade.
Slot pairs at Heathrow have been sold for $75 million, while positions at Gatwick can reach about $8.6 million and average 3 million pounds, according to Virgin. Manchester has two runways like Heathrow, but with 28 million passengers barely one-third the traffic, so that supply is more matched to demand and slots are less valuable.
The northern hub is spending 1 billion pounds to double the size of one its terminals and fund runway enhancements that will take capacity to 55 million people a year.
Negotiations at Gatwick, where Thomas Cook has about 15 slot pairs in the summer, will depend on whether the tour operator retains control of the slots or they revert to ACL.