With the Jet Airways implosion fresh in our minds still, others are seeking to fill the capacity – such as Mumbai. Virgin Atlantic joining the party, with the airline planning to operate services to Mumbai from 27th October 2019.
Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9 at Terminal 3 – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
Virgin Atlantic is resuming the route after a break of four years. with flights on sale from Tuesday, 28th May. The first service is set to commence on 27th October 2019, complementing the airline’s route between London and Delhi.
Planned operation is as follows
DEPART LHR 10:15 ARRIVE BOM 00:40+1 DEPART BOM 02:55 ARRIVE LHR 07:35 Commences 27th October 2019 Operates Daily Booked equipment: Virgin Atlantic Three-Class Boeing 787-9 Data: Virgin Atlantic
The route will use a Three-Class Boeing 787-9, with Upper Class, Premium Economy and all three variants of the Virgin economy product, split as
- 31 Upper Class Beds
- 35 Premium Economy Seats
- 192 Economy Seats
These planes feature IFE and onboard Wi-Fi connectivity
In Quotes
Juha Jarvinen, Executive Vice President, Commercial, at Virgin Atlantic, commented;
“2019 marks a significant period of growth for Virgin Atlantic and I’m delighted that we’re continuing to expand our route network once more, by returning to Mumbai. Until recently we’ve been able to serve this important market through our partnership with Jet Airways, however, since Jet Airways has sadly suspended its operation, we now have an opportunity to provide alternative options for our customers and meet this demand.”
“2019 marks a significant period of growth for Virgin Atlantic and I’m delighted that we’re continuing to expand our route network once more, by returning to Mumbai. Until recently we’ve been able to serve this important market through our partnership with Jet Airways, however, since Jet Airways has sadly suspended its operation, we now have an opportunity to provide alternative options for our customers and meet this demand.”
Plugging a Jet Airways sized gap.
With Jet Airways in the state its in, others are racing to fill in a capacity that vanished overnight. British Airways also attempting to plug the gap with a four-times a week service starting in June.
However, even with this new capacity coming in, Jet Airways used to operate three aircraft a day on this sector. There’s going to be a capacity squeeze on this route for some time to come.
How other carriers react will be interesting to watch.
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