Longhaul leisure traffic continues to be an important part of the Virgin Atlantic traffic mix, with the airline looking to boost capacity to winter sun destinations in 2024.
Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9 – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
Those looking to escape the British winter will be pleased to learn that the airline’s recently launched seasonal routes to Dubai and the Maldives will both increase to a daily service for the 2024-25 winter season.
Barbados continues as the most popular destination in Virgin Atlantic’s Caribbean portfolio and will see a record number of flights for 2024, with the airline planning to operate Double daily services from London Heathrow throughout winter 2024, in addition to its four times a-week flying from Manchester Airport.
Barbados will operate double daily from 27th October, with daily Dubai services resuming on the 26th of October 2024 and daily Maldives on the 27th of October 2024.
Tickets for these routes for Winter 2024 are now on sale, as the Virgin Atlantic winter sale kicks off and can be purchased as part of a package holiday bundle by Virgin Atlantic Holidays.
Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Virgin Atlantic, commented;
“We’re excited to be whisking our customers away on more sunny breaks than ever next year, thanks to our expanding leisure portfolio. Our recent route launches to Dubai and the Maldives have already proved exceptionally popular and we’re pleased to offer more opportunities for our customers to reach these luxurious destinations in 2024 and 2025. We serve record number of Caribbean islands in 2024 with direct services from London Heathrow to Antigua, The Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, and Turks & Caicos.
“The introduction of twice daily flights from Heathrow to Barbados, alongside our four times a week service from Manchester, cement the island’s position as our most popular destination in the Caribbean. We know our customers love the island’s welcoming hospitality, warm climate and stunning resorts and can’t wait to fly a record number of holidaymakers to this incredible island next year.”
Building on the Atlantic
With an expansion of more sun routes, Virgin Atlantic is building on its commercial network strengths – strong business traffic in the summer, and holiday traffic in the winter to sun locations.
However, there’s a lot of extra capacity – and whilst it won’t compete with some airlines with that capacity (remember Emirates runs up to six flights a day to Heathrow, and most of that is with double-decker aircraft), it will appeal to those who trust the Virgin name when travelling.
Especially when the airline’s ability to work with its holidays branch to deliver tailored breaks to suit the demographics they are targeting.
For those who are looking to cash in points, it could be a good use of them – especially on the longer-haul segments.
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