Virgin Atlantic bets on more legroom in economy in trans-Atlantic battle

LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) - Virgin Atlantic said it wouldoffer a new type of economy seat with extra legroom, as it triesto stand out from the crowd at a time when low-cost airlines areintensifying competition on trans-Atlantic routes.

The British-based airline, partly owned by U.S. carrierDelta, said on Wednesday that it would refit the cabinsof its Boeing 787 Dreamliners to offer a new type of economyseat with legroom of 34 inches (86 cms), bigger than the currenteconomy offering of 31 inches.

Virgin also said it would offer a new "economy light" ticketwhich excludes checked luggage.

It gave no information about ticket prices in the newcategories.

The airline is increasingly competing against low-costcarriers such as Norwegian Air Shuttle, Canada'sWestjet and Iceland's Wow Air, which are all steppingup expansion on routes between North America and Europe.

IAG, the owner of Virgin's old rival BritishAirways, is also in on the low-cost action, launching a low-costlong-haul unit called Level last year, while Lufthansahas been expanding its Eurowings brand, and U.S. carriers haveintroduced new fares that don't include baggage or seatselection.

Virgin said a process to refit its cabins to offer the extralegroom was under way and formed part of a 300 million pound($416 million) investment which included adding wifi to itsfleet and new bag drop facilities at airports.

The new 34-inch legroom seat on Virgin, available from thisSpring, will give passengers an option in between economy andVirgin's more expensive premium economy seat.

Rival airlines British Airways and Norwegian also offereconomy seats with 31 inches of legroom. Both British Airwaysand Virgin offer legroom of 38 inches in their premium economy,while Norwegian's premium cabin has legroom of between 43 and 46inches.

Last year, Virgin Atlantic said Air France-KLMwould buy 31 percent of the airline from Richard Branson'sVirgin Group, making it the second largest Virgin Atlanticshareholder after U.S. airline Delta, which owns a 49 percentstake, and reducing Virgin Group's stake to 20 percent. Thatdeal has not yet completed.($1 = 0.7206 pounds)(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Adrian Croft)