Taking on British Airways on their own turf, Virgin Atlantic will launch domestic flights in the UK starting March 2013.

Starting with domestic flights between London Heathrow and Manchester, the new short haul operation for the airline will give consumers a genuine choice of airline to fly to Heathrow and beyond, according to Virgin Atlantic CEO Steve Ridgway.

Mr Ridgway said the new service will debut with three flights daily, providing strong competition for BA in keeping fares low.

Virgin Atlantic is looking at replacing the Heathrow arrival and departure slots formerly used by BMI before its take-over by British Airways, aiming to start flights to Europe, Middle East and Russia from London Heathrow.

 “We have consistently expressed an interest in flying these routes to keeping competition alive and to preserve consumer choice, and we remain committed to that," Mr Ridgway said.

Virgin Australia frequent flyers have welcomed the news of European connections as the program lacked a compelling European airline partner to earn points and status credits when flying around Europe.