THE Civil Aviation Authority has reversed its decision to allow Virgin Atlantic to fly from Heathrow to Moscow and awarded the route licence to British Midland (Travel Weekly October 28 1998).
The airline said it would start a four-times weekly service in the summer with Airbus A321 aircraft. This will increase to a daily service in summer 2000.
Virgin was given the licence ahead of British Midland in September, claiming it would offer a daily service.
However, British Midland appealed to deputy prime minister John Prescott, saying it had built its case around the four-times weekly service allowed under UK-Russia bilaterals.
Prescott ordered the CAA to reconvene the scarce capacity hearing in November on the basis there were actually only four flights a week allowed.
The CAA said it chose British Midland this time because it had secured better Heathrow slots for the four-times weekly service than Virgin.
Virgin said it would appeal to Prescott after its licence was taken away.