Long-haul airline Virgin Atlantic is restoring its full schedule of US destinations for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Following renewed customer confidence and a strong uptick in bookings, which are up 50 per cent year-on-year, the airline will add frequencies and reintroduce services to key US gateways, from April.
Flights to Seattle and Washington DC will take off next week, with services to New York, San Francisco and Atlanta also increasing. In April, a third daily service to Los Angeles will commence, serving the Californian city more than any other airline.
Virgin Atlantic will operate Orlando flights from its four UK gateways of Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast, resulting in more flights from the UK to the theme park capital of the world than any other carrier.
Seattle flights will depart five times weekly from London Heathrow on March 2. The airline operate its 787-9, with its famous on-board bar and top of the range in-flight entertainment.
London Heathrow to Washington DC services will operate five times a week from March 5 on an Airbus A330, providing vital connectivity between the two nations’ capital cities and re-establishing links for both business and leisure travellers. Last month, Virgin Atlantic announced its first new US route since 2015, to Austin, Texas, which will operate four times weekly from May 25.
Juha Jarvinen, chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic, said: “Following the relaxation of travel restrictions, we’ve seen demand increase to many of our global destinations, but particularly to our heartland in the USA. Our customers can’t wait to return.
“The restart of our Seattle and Washington DC services mark an important milestone, as we move into recovery and welcome our customers back on board to all the destinations they’ve missed. We’re simply not Virgin without the Atlantic and our growing transatlantic portfolio demonstrates why we’re the airline of choice to the USA.”
Customers will have increased choice to destinations with convenient onward connections on codeshare flights operated by US airline Delta.
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
