An Air Jamaica airliner takes off.

Virgin Atlantic has successfully acquired Air Jamaica's London route, a respected London newspaper has reported.

According to the Telegraph, the airline staved off competition from British Airways to earn a code-sharing deal with the national airline for the London to Kingston route starting October. This will add two more flights a week from London to Jamaica for Virgin Atlantic, which already has two weekly flights from London to Montego Bay which it acquired in July of last year.

Virgin has also procured Air Jamaica's Heathrow take-off and landing slots, according to the Telegraph, for an undisclosed sum of money.

Air Jamaica's route cuts have left Jamaicans living in the United Kingdom and travel agents who do business with the airline concerned. Roughly 70,000 people fly between London and Jamaica annually.

Efforts to ascertain the details and cost of the arrangement made with Virgin were not forthcoming as neither Air Jamaica Chairman O.K. Melhado nor Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies was available for comment up to press time yesterday. Transport Minister Robert Pickersgill also declined to answer questions about the deal.

Considering cutting routes

However, prior to news of the deal with Virgin yesterday, Mr. Melhado confirmed that Air Jamaica was considering cutting routes that were too costly for the airline to operate.

In the 2007/2008 Estimates of Expenditure tabled in Parliament last month, Air Jamaica said it would focus on outsourcing and restructuring some functions and continue route rationalisation as part of its strategies to build revenue for the airline.

Its net loss was US$64 million last fiscal year, an improvement of US$66 million over the previous year, which stood at US$130 million, but still $31.4 million more than what it had projected for the fiscal year. The improvement was driven by a US$57 million reduction in anticipated expenses, the airline reported, and a slight boost in passenger revenue of US$11 million. It said despite the loss, the airline is expected to improve over the next three years.