Originally Posted by Raffles

Branson's only sane argument is that BA will block all his transfer traffic. At present, VS - reading between the lines - seems to have a deal with BMI to feed traffic to its Heathrow flights. This is the only way that VS can compete with BA for a passenger who wants to fly, say, EDI-LHR-Miami.

Without cheap feeder fares, VS is stuffed for connecting traffic, at least in Y. They assume BA will ratchet up fares by 34% on the EDI and MAN routes (a la Glasgow) whilst also removing whatever deal VS had on feeder traffic. The net result is that it will be impossible for VS to compete with BA for non-London originating traffic. If BA is offering EDI-NYC for £400 via LHR but is charging VS £200 for the EDI-LHR leg as a feed then VS is in trouble.