Virgin Everywhere

When the first Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 took off from London to New York in 1984, not many would have thought that the Virgin Group just started to conquer the airline industry. Today, Virgin-branded airlines seem to be everywhere. Russia could be next.

	Sir Richard Branson during a media presentation in Sydney (Photo: Michael Meier/Airsider)

Beside UK based international airline Virgin Atlantic, the group is also holding stakes airlines countries such as in Australia, the U.S. and Nigeria. Russia and India could now become the next target markets.

After Sir Richard Branson recently announced plans to launch a low cost carrier in India a few weeks ago, he's now talking about Russia too.

Plans for Russia seem to be further advanced at this moment. As Bloomberg reports, Branson is in contact with two to three potential partner airlines, including Sky Express, a Moscow-based carrier. Sky Express could become the base for Virgin's next airline venture. Sky Express was founded in 2006 as Russia's first low cost airline and operates a fleet of eight Boeing 737-300 and 737-500 aircraft on domestic routes.

A joint venture with a local company would be a proven set-up for a Virgin airline. The group is known for it practice to work with local partners when building-up businesses. Sky Express could certainly be a partner, but this is just one option as Branson mentioned.

The new low cost airline could start flying within the next 12 months, even thought this seems really optimistic. Virgin would then attack established carriers such as government-controlled Aeroflot in its core market.

Michael Meier