Originally Posted by
Prospero
Virgin have long held ambitions to fly to Moscow .
Virgin did serve Moscow from 1989-94 with 747-200s, but gave it up when their operation to Tokyo could be done nonstop. I don't recall they ever made much attempt to sell seats to the intermediate point, and they certainly don't appear to have told the Guardian that they served it for some years, haphazardly, and gave it up.
a "disappointing, surprising and strange" decision by the CAA.
I've read the CAA decision document, and one thing that seems to have struck them was that Easyjet demonstrated that the comparable-distance market to Tel Aviv used to have huge fares if returning without spending a Saturday night, and when they came on to the route and didn't do this all the other legacy carriers were, quite amazingly, suddenly able to do the same. Which it was demonstrated they still haven't done to Moscow. Virgin didn't say anything about this.
He said it was time for "open skies", and that decisions on how many airlines fly between countries were best left to a market "rather than a civil servant".
Branson needs to understand that Russian bureaucracy, right up to the Presidency, is based much more on good manners and politeness, reciprocity, benefits to both sides, and not opening your home team up to any disadvantage. If he hasn't understood that yet he doesn't really deserve to serve the market.