The carrier and its partner, US giant Delta, which owns 49% of Virgin, is considering how to counter the impact of carriers such as Norwegian Air Shuttle at the Sussex airport.
Any new company would retain the Virgin brand but be run at a lower cost as a different corporate entity with different employee contracts.
A fleet of twinjets would be moved from Delta’s mainline fleet to help lower operating costs if the go-ahead is given.
Nat Pieper, Delta’s senior vice-president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, told TTG: “I would expect that in the next six to eight months we will know.” He added that Airbus A330s could be taken from Delta’s mainline fleet in order to give it a cost advantage over Norwegian, which uses new Boeing 787s.
