Mr. Joe Thompson:

However, large numbers of passengers continue to make connections between interlining carriers. There are important considerations that customers have to bear in mind when they make that decision. In buying a through ticket that is enabled by an interline agreement, the carriers have obligations to one another in the event of a delay or a lost bag, which do not apply in the instance where a customer buys two separate tickets. There is also the implication for through travel time. If a customer buys two separate tickets, he or she must collect the bag at the connecting point and that means it will be very difficult to make an onward connection between airlines in less than approximately three hours. In an interline agreement, the airline is able to offer connections between carriers with a connecting time of 60 to 70 minutes. It enables a much more customer-friendly proposition which is valued by many customers. It is the predominant way in which consumers buy connecting itineraries.

On the question of whether Virgin Atlantic has considered flying short-haul to Ireland, the best analogy to cite is Virgin Atlantic's experience of flying short-haul in the United Kingdom. As a consequence of IAG acquisition of British Midland International, BMI, a few years ago, a competitive remedy was applied which made available short-haul slots for airlines to compete on routes that became a monopoly as a result of that acquisition. As a result Virgin Atlantic started operating between Heathrow and Aberdeen and Edinburgh using these remedy slots. We are very proud of what we achieved with that operation, including fantastic customer service and some of the best punctuality of any airline at Heathrow, but unfortunately competing with a monopoly provider is very difficult and we could not make those services economic. We have learned from that experience and the prospect of flying short-haul services between two hubs that both belong to the competing airline is not a very attractive commercial prospect.

In response to the question on whether Virgin Atlantic had considered bidding for Aer Lingus, all I will say is that we are not participating in this process as a potential partner nor are we considering the acquisition of Aer Lingus.

The final question was whether Virgin Atlantic raised objections to previous deals. First, let me point out that we are not objecting to this proposed transaction. We are agnostic as to whether the transaction goes ahead, but what is important to us is that the relevant consumer interests are taken into account by the process. We have participated most recently in the IAG acquisition of British Midland International and I have described one of the significant outcomes of that process.