Virgin Atlantic, one of the world’s leading long haul airlines, has renewed its managed services contract with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the IT services subsidiary of global conglomerate, Tata Group.

Under the renewed agreement, which will last until 2011, TCS will continue to manage Virgin Atlantic’s global end-to-end IT systems including a 24x7 service desk, infrastructure and application support services. The deal also entrusts TCS with the management of Virgin Atlantic’s other third party IT suppliers.

Mike Cope, IT Director of Virgin Atlantic, said: “Today, airlines need to effectively exploit IT more than ever to be successful in a very competitive marketplace. Thanks to our ongoing partnership with TCS we have the right partner to enable this.”

Interestingly, the travel and transportation sector is emerging as a key vertical for TCS, generating 4.0% of the company’s total $5.7 billion revenues for fiscal 08.