If 2023 was the year of airlines expanding their European network with flashy new flights to smaller cities such as Porto and Venice, we are now seeing an explosion of interest in the African continent.
United Airlines (UAL) launched a number of new flights to Ghana and South Africa back in May while Delta Air Lines (DAL) is bringing back new routes to Lagos, Nigeria from New York and Atlanta in December 2024. This came after budget airline Norse Atlantic Airways (NRSAF) dropped an unexpected new 5,188-mile route between London and Cape Town, South Africa.
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Launched in 1982 as a competitor to British Airways, West Sussex-based Virgin Atlantic had a flight between London Heathrow Airport (LHR) and Kotoka International Airport (ACC) in Ghana's Accra that it discontinued in 2013 and is now bringing back 11 years later.
Virgin promises to 'provide much needed competition on the airline'
The new flight will launch on May 1, 2025 and run daily on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner (BA) plane. According to Virgin, the route is meant to serve both tourists passing through London on their way to Africa and the Ghanian community living in the United Kingdom.
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"The airline will provide much needed competition on the route, which currently lacks a choice of routes between the two countries," Virgin writes of the new flight. "The United Kingdom is home to the third largest Ghanaian diaspora in the world and the new service will respond to demand to visit friends and relatives. Around 10% of customers are also expected to connect through London onto Virgin Atlantic’s New York JFK service."
The flight will be available to book for future travel as of Sept. 2. The airline is yet to announce pricing, but a one-way flight between London and Cape Town in October currently lists for £1,029 (roughly $1,354 USD) in economy on Virgin's website.
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Virgin also eying Saudi Arabia interest with second new route
Along with the return of the London-Accra route, Virgin is also launching a new flight to King Khalid International Airport (RUH) in Saudi Arabia's Riyadh. Classifying it as wanting to participate in the "growth expected from Saudi Vision 2030," Virgin is launching the flight on March 30, 2025 on an Airbus A330-900neo (EADSF) plane with 262 seats including a number in the airline's Upper and Premium classes.
"Alongside business travelers, the route will serve the 'visiting friends and relatives' (VFR) market, which has seen a fivefold increase in Saudis living in the UK between 2000 and 2018," the airline writes of the new route.
It also said that it will offer 30 metric tons of cargo capacity for companies exporting goods such as fresh produce and pharmaceuticals between Saudi Arabia and the U.K. and the U.S. (This is a common move for airlines looking to get new flights approved while also balancing the cost of running them.)
The new route is also meant to serve as a connecting point for those traveling from the UK to Pakistani cities like Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi with further connections to Bangladesh and China planned for the future.
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