British Airways Flies Nonstop London-Las Vegas

(MoneyWatch)  The first nonstop British Airways flight from London to Las Vegas landed Sunday night at McCarran International Airport, beginning a full-scale assault on Virgin Atlantic's Las Vegas-London monopoly. British Airways, which features twin-engine Boeing 777s, boasts that its nonstop flights also connects to other European, African and Middle Eastern locales at London's busy Heathrow International Airport -- unlike Virgin Atlantic, which uses Gatwick International Airport.

While it's true that Heathrow can deliver connectivity, the serious damage to Virgin Atlantic are British Airways' prices -- $276 for roundtrip economy flights from Nov. 2 to Dec. 20 and Dec. 24 to March 28. (Tickets must be purchased by Thursday.) Other trips to Madrid, Paris and Milan are $358.

I think that British Airways has made a pretty deep splash at McCarran, so I'm curious to see how Virgin Atlantic handles the new competition. So far, there's been no matching prices.

Photo courtesy of British Airways