Press releases arranged by a British aviation PR company called Emerald Media announced that Varsity Express would launch an air service between Edinburgh and Oxford in March 2010.
[1] From the outset, Varsity Express embraced social networking and microblogging media, using Twitter and Facebook to reach out to its potential clientele in the university cities where it planned to operate.
Even before its maiden flight, Varsity Express announced new routes linking Newcastle-upon-Tyne with both Edinburgh and Oxford.
Because AlphaOne did not have the necessary certification to operate flights itself, Halstead arranged for a licensed carrier to fly on his behalf.
Varsity Express (like AlphaOne Airways before it) was thus an extreme example of what transport economists often term a virtual airline.