Quick Links A brief history of how Virgin Atlantic came to be The airline competed fiercely with British Airways for market control So how did Virgin Atlantic manage to survive when no other European airline was able to become a second legacy carrier? In Europe, there are dozens of different legacy carriers, some of which are among the world's highest-rated airlines with the most extensive route networks. These carriers include the likes of British Airways , Air France, Turkish Airlines (if you consider it a European airline, which geographically, it is), Lufthansa, and many more. These carriers all maintain membership in the largest global alliances, such as the SkyTeam and Star Alliance.
Get all the latest aviation news from Simple Flying! However, across the board, there is typically just one legacy carrier per nation, due to several factors related to the long-term development of the aviation industry, alongside extensive consolidation that has taken place over the years. This can be observed across the continent. Even in some of the largest European aviation markets, there is only one long-haul legacy airline .
In Germany, there is just Lufthansa. In France, there is just Air France. Sometimes, there may be a legacy carrier that serves as the flagship airline for multiple different countries, such as Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), which operates out of multiple different Scandinavian countries.
There are other long-haul carriers, such as LEVEL, Condor and Norse Atlantic, b.
