Virgin Express is finalising its plans for a secondary hub at Rome, with the setting up of a base at the Italian airport.
The low-cost airline chose Rome Fuimicino Airport to be its southern European hub in May, and already serves the airport from its Brussels base and flies from Barcelona and Madrid in Spain. Virgin Express is now recruiting 20 Rome-based pilots to enable operations to be expanded, having recently obtained additional slots at Fuimicino. The airline plans to increase frequencies on its services to Madrid and Barcelona, and is examining new destinations such as Berlin or Paris.
Virgin is also believed to have filed a request for 11 daily slots at Milan Linate Airport, to enable it to launch an operation between the northern Italian city and Rome, in direct competition with Alitalia and AirOne.
This is the only domestic route which will continue to be operated into Linate when, under new legislation, all other services will be transferred to the new Malpensa 2000 in October.
Meanwhile, Virgin Express has filed an application for an Irish air operator's certificate. The carrier says that it plans to base up to four aircraft at Dublin, and launch services to an undisclosed European destination. At the same time, a shortage of Brussels-based pilots has forced Virgin to ground two of its Boeing 737s.
Source: Flight International
