Driven by profit

I seems only a short while ago that Virgin Atlantic was telling us how fortunate we were that it was taking the BMI routes from Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and inviting us to give cosy names to its “Little Red aircraft”, and pay its not so cosy fares. Now (the first two years of a route is often the most profitable due to the novelty factor) it is moving on again: taking the money and running.

The good thing about virginity is that you only have to lose it once, and I hope the same goes for losing Virgin Atlantic.

I am always amused by the way a company – and this is only the latest in a line stretching back years – launches a service that it invites its paying public to identify with (as a marketing ploy), but then dumps, as soon as the bottom line wobbles.

Sorry we didn’t make you enough money Richard, but maybe the Scottish Parliament should look more closely at the fiscal success of the East Coast publicly owned rail service, and ask itself if Scotland is ready again for a publicly owned air service, run for profit, with fares that favour Scottish businesses and residents – and leave Virgin Atlantic to find other virgins to fleece.

David Fiddimore

Calton Road

Edinburgh