Sir Richard Branson was at it again yesterday. There's nothing the Virgin boss likes more than having a poke at British Airways and by aiming at the Heathrow Terminal 5 fiasco, he chose a particularly sensitive spot.

Virgin described the problems at the terminal's opening, which resulted in hundreds of BA flights being cancelled and thousands of pieces of luggage going astray, as a “gift” that encouraged passengers to switch their allegiance.

BA responded angrily to Sir Richard's baiting, insisting that there was no evidence that Virgin Atlantic had benefited from the problems.

But Virgin does seem to have enjoyed particularly strong growth since the terminal opened in March. In the three months to June, Virgin said that it had filled 77 per cent of its seats - up from 74 per cent last year - and pre-tax profits were up a quarter at £23.5 million.

Admittedly, it was already doing well among business-class travellers - premium passenger numbers jumped 22 per cent in the year to February - but a number of large companies have added Virgin to their preferred list of airlines recently, partly because of the T5 problems.

Virgin has invested heavily in its business-class facilities at Heathrow and has expanded its route network to 30 destinations.

Sir Richard is particularly keen to have a go at BA at the moment as he pursues his campaign to prevent it forming an alliance with American Airlines and Iberia.

But the trumpeting of Virgin Atlantic's solid performance - in which pre-tax profits after exceptional items jumped from £6 million to £34.8 million in the year to February - prompted another thought among conspiracy theorists. It would be a good platform from which to launch an offer for bmi.

One theory has Singapore Airlines selling its 49 per cent stake in Virgin to Lufthansa as part of a threeway combination with bmi. That would be a even bigger poke in the eye for BA.

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