Virgin Atlantic will be chopping and changing its operates between London Heathrow and Los Angeles in the coming summer, by adding their new Boeing 787-9 aircraft between the two cities.
Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9 “Birthday Girl” – Image, Virgin Atlantic via Twitter
The equipment saw will see the existing Boeing 747-400 and Airbus A340-600 swapped to a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and an Airbus A340-600, with the 787-9 taking over the 747-400 rotations from 30th April 2015.
The revised timetable looks like this:
London Heathrow to Los Angeles
VS007 DEPART LHR 11:15 ARRIVE LAX 14:35 Boeing 787-9 VS023 DEPART LHR 12:35 ARRIVE LAX 16:05 Airbus A340-600 VS007 operates with a Boeing 747-400 until 29th April 2015 VS007 operates with a Boeing 787-9 from 30th April 2015
Los Angeles to London Heathrow
VS008 DEPART LAX 17:50 ARRIVE LHR 12:20+1 Boeing 787-9 VS024 DEPART LAX 22:20 ARRIVE LHR 16:50+1 Airbus A340-600 VS008 operates with a Boeing 747-400 until 29th April 2015 VS008 operates with a Boeing 787-9 from 30th April 2015 Data: Airlineroute
Let’s not pick bones, there will be a major capacity drop with the loss of the 747. To compare, see the table below:
UPPER CLASS PREMIUM ECO ECONOMY 747-400 44 62 261 787-9 31 35 198 Net loss 13 27 63 TOTAL: 103 Seats net loss per flight
With a loss of 721 seats each week in each direction, Virgin appears to be “right-sizing” the route for its needs – as opposed to running larger planes that could be empty over the pond on this long haul service.
Virgin Atlantic has a lot of competition on this route, with options offered by American Airlines, British Airways, Air New Zealand, United Airlines and it’s 49% owner, Delta Air Lines.
Hopefully by “right-sizing” the route, the route can continue to remain profitable.
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With AA adding a secondly daily B77w to this route and BA upgauging their twice daily flights to A380, this route has seen added capacity so it is no surprise that someone is removing seats from this route
As a Delta platinum (yeah, yeah…) I have been looking for a lazy way to get on a 787…This is great.
There is no capacity drop….VS operates a JV with Delta who are taking over 1 LAX-LHR with a 76W…so thats 2 VS flights and 1 DL flight…not a drop in seats…