There has been mixed news from Britain's aviation industry.

British Airways has announced that it is cutting a further 5800 jobs, on top of 7200 previously announced, in order to help make £650 million annual savings. BA is also restructuring its European short haul business to compete with the no-frills carriers.

Virgin Atlantic, however, has announced its first increase in flights since the September 11 terrorist attacks. Virgin is also adding four other new services to its global routes as the public becomes less afraid of flying.

Forum Response: British Airways

Rod Eddington, chief executive of British Airways, told ePolitix.com: "We will remain true to our heritage of being a full service network carrier committed to customer service excellence and world class products. But we must transform British Airways into a simpler, leaner, more focused airline so we can thrive and prosper in an increasingly competitive market."

"We will not become a no frills airline nor will we launch one. We will compete profitably and intelligently alongside them by adopting what they do well - online bookings, high aircraft utilisation and pricing simplicity. We will mix it with what we do well - providing a great network with frequent flights from convenient airports, as well as delivering world class customer service. Our premium and frequent customers remain as important as ever and we will continue to invest in products and services that they value."

"Simplification is key to removing cost from the business. These fleet moves mean our operations at Gatwick will be flown by just two aircraft types - Boeing 737s for short haul and Boeing 777s for long haul. For our regional bases, a simpler fleet helps to deliver operational efficiency."

Forum Response: Virgin Atlantic

Steve Ridgway, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, told ePolitix.com: "Our load factors, particularly on leisure routes have been improving for some while now and we feel the time is right for a number of incremental increases. We will be increasing services to leisure destinations Las Vegas and Antigua and also to the developing markets of Shanghai and Lagos.

"I'm also pleased that we are reintroducing two more services per week between Heathrow to Newark. After 11 September we moved quickly and decisively to realign our business to the new demands of the market place and we are beginning to reap the rewards of that action.

"We need to maintain our focus on controlling our costs and growing our revenues in all cabins in the months ahead. This revised flying schedule gives us an overall capacity increase of over five per cent and that demonstrates that we can look to the future with increasing optimism."