Virgin Atlantic has said it will fight hard to launch services between Scottish airports and Heathrow.

The move is in response to the takeover of bmi by Spanish firm International Airline Group (IAG), British Airways's parent company, which Virgin said will damage competition.

Virgin will start its first domestic flights between London and Manchester from next spring and hopes to link Aberdeen and Edinburgh with Heathrow. It said it will bid to take over slots on those routes, now available as a result of the IAG takeover.

It has appealed against the European Commission's decision to approve the IAG takeover of bmi.

A Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman said: "We believe the deal will cause serious competitive harm at Heathrow, placing British Airways in a position of total market dominance at the world's busiest airport, and completely eroding consumer choice.

"We will bid to operate all of the remedy slots that BA has been forced to give up through the process. We have made clear our commitment to operate on much of bmi's existing network throughout.

"When BA holds 54% of the slots at Heathrow, the impacts of the deal are exacerbated. If there had been more room to grow there, we would have more opportunity to offer network competition to BA. Instead, we will fight hard to take on the remedy slots available in order to offer short-haul competition to BA for passengers flying from Scotland and elsewhere to London and beyond.

"The slots include services to Aberdeen and Edinburgh and Moscow."