Virgin Atlantic announced plans to introduce flights from London Heathrow to Moscow in 2013.

The airline says that the traffic between London and Moscow has trebled in the last ten years and demand continues to grow. It stated that, should it win the Heathrow slots from British Airways (which BA was forced to give up following its purchase of bmi earlier this year), it will be introducing daily flights between the two capitals.

Virgin Atlantic Chief Executive, Steve Ridgway said: "This route is now open for another UK airline following BA's takeover of bmi and we are making preparations to take up these rights early next year.  Linking these two cities will be an important part of our strategy to run short haul flights into Heathrow thus feeding our long haul network.  It will also radically improve competition on the route giving business and leisure travellers much better choice."

Virgin Atlantic has been focusing on connecting its routes from the East and South to its transatlantic flights, doubling its own connecting traffic through Heathrow in the last two years alone.  It will launch flights from London Heathrow to Mumbai in October 2012, which will connect the Indian commercial centre with New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami and Washington via Heathrow.

Steve Ridgway said: "Given the increased consolidation in the market and challenging economic environment, we need to develop our network proposition and ability to sell more connecting journeys."

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