Virgin and EasyJet to join forces
Virgin and EasyJet are to team up with an Asian airline to create the world's first budget global network.
Richard Branson's Virgin and EasyJet's Stelios Haji-Ioannou will join forces with AirAsia to form a Malaysia-based alliance, the south-east Asian country's Star newspaper says.
It quoted unidentified industry sources as saying that the new joint venture would first fly between Kuala Lumpur and Manchester, and Amritsar in India.
And the alliance - if it decided to fly to London as well - could also use Luton airport as a hub because Virgin already operates a rail link from there to central London, the paper said.
Fares to Britain will be between £43 (€63.94) and £365 (€542.75), about half the price of a ticket on a regular airline, it added.
It said the alliance would give Virgin and EasyJet access to Kuala Lumpur's low-cost airport terminal, the gateway to a dream Asian hub for their Europe-to-Australia routes.
Branson is having talks with AirAsia's Tony Fernandes and recently-knighted Greek-British tycoon Stelios and that plans could include flights to Hangzhou near Shanghai, China and Tianjin near Beijing, according to the report.
The newspaper quoted a source familiar with the discussions as saying that fares on the long-haul network would be as low as £14 (€20.81) for destinations in China.
AirAsia spokesmen were not immediately available for comment because of a public holiday in Malaysia.
But The Star quoted Mr Fernandes as saying that AirAsia, Asia's most profitable and largest no-frills carrier, was currently focused on short-haul services "where we have much work to do".
