The Daily Telegraph published a news story yesterday suggesting, in the aftermath of BA buying up bmi, that the slots BA are being forced to sell should be kept as a bundle.

Virgin seems to have the idea that it could then operate UK domestic flights.

The news story reports, for the first time I have seen, how the slots are being sold:

The EC has split the 14 slots into three separate groups: seven pairs that have to be used between Heathrow and Scotland; the two Transaero slots; and five further daily slots with various destination restrictions. The way the package was broken up has raised some concerns at Virgin that the EC is targeting more than one airline.

(The Russian airline Transaero already has two of the slots leased to it).

Watch this space to see if Virgin plans to compete with their own London<-> Scotland train service