It was created in 2012 as a way to provide competition for aviation giant[1] British Airways (BA) on UK domestic mainland flights to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Manchester from London Heathrow Airport.

[13] International Airlines Group CEO, Willie Walsh had criticised Little Red calling it a "mistake" and stated "You cannot make money flying aircraft that are less than half full.

"[14] Virgin had claimed that they were prepared to take losses on Little Red, estimated to be up to £3 million a week, in order to wait for an expansion in brand awareness.

This was attributed to BA's dominance of the UK domestic market and Heathrow's restrictions of the usage of the small number of slots available.

[5] It was also claimed in the media that passengers preferred to use low-cost carriers such as EasyJet to fly to and from other London airports aside of Heathrow for domestic travel owing to pricing.

The planes were returned for Aer Lingus' sole use in the Republic of Ireland following the final passenger flights of Little Red.

During its operation, Virgin Atlantic Little Red's fleet consisted of four Airbus A320s wet leased from Aer Lingus under a three-year contract.

However, they declined to do this, stating that they wanted more flexibility with the returned aircraft to support their current fleet and operation.