It seems that Virgin Atlantic is struggling with the London to Sydney via Hong Kong run – and is suspending the route between Hong Kong and Sydney.
Virgin Atlantic (the UK arm owned 51% by Virgin Group and 49% by Delta) blame the withdrawal on “increasing costs and a challenging economic environment”.
The London Heathrow – Hong Kong segment of the route will be retained.
Currently, Virgin Atlantic operates the LHR-HKG-SYD route as:
VS200 DEPART LHR 21:30 ARRIVE HKG 17:40 / DEPART HKG 19:10 ARRIVE SYD 07:30+1 VS201 DEPART SYD 15:45 ARRIVE HKG 22:00 / DEPART HKG 23:30 ARRIVE LHR 04:50+2
Last flights on this route will be:
– London to Hong Kong to Sydney on the 04 May 2014
– Sydney to Hong Kong to London on 05 May 2014
The flight will then revert to a London to Hong Kong service, with times to be confirmed.
If you have pre-booked your ticket already, you can apply for a refund or ask to be re-routed subject to capacity on other carriers. Contact your booking agent/travel agent or Virgin Holiday/Virgin Atlantic as appropriate.
The numbers are:
– Australia: + 61 2 9004 5549
– UK: 0844 209 2772
– Hong Kong: + 852 2532 6060 (Open Monday to Friday, 9am – 6pm; Saturday 9am – 1pm; Closed Sunday).
– Virgin Holidays passengers (UK): 0844 573 0088
The full text is at http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/travel-information/customer-service/latest-news/sydney-service.html?affId=1736887
The market between Europe and Australia has always been a dicey one at least, with European carrier after carrier pulling back – retreating to Asia, and allowing regional and local carriers to pick up the slack through code-shares and alliances. It’s also where Asian and Persian Gulf airlines have succeeded most.
In fact, I can think of one or two airlines who ply one-stop route between Europe and Australia now.
However, it’s a blow for Virgin Atlantic who seemingly are finally looking at profits before pride now.
Guess DL would prefer to see them route AU bound pax via DL’s LAX-SYD flight
@Tom I don’t think that is necessarily true. LHR-LAX-SYD is 12944mi vs 10575. Although not a lot longer, I wouldn’t jump on that routing! Not to mention Virgin & Delta do not codeshare on the SYD-LAX route nor is it timed for connections. SYD-LAX lands at 7am and LAX-LHR doesn’t depart until 2120. LHR-LAX lands at 7pm and LAX-SYD departs close to midnight. This means horrible connection
Rocky,
Good points there. My first thought was as Tom’s but your point makes sense. It may be just a $$ situation.
I’m sure VS has interlines with everyone but most likely people will stay on VS to HKG and then CX to Australia. Others include SQ via SIN or EY/VA via AUH.
While it is only speculation, Virgin Australia has recently just received enough A330s configured for regional routes and Hong Kong has been rumoured to be one of the possible routes…