Virgin Atlantic (VS/VIR) has announced new routes from Manchester Airport (MAN/EGCC) and London Heathrow (LHR/EGLL) starting this Winter season.
Manchester Airport
Manchester sees a new route to Delhi (DEL/VIDP) from 26th October 2020 and coincides with the airlines 20th year of flying to Delhi from the UK.
The three-times-per-week service will be operated by an Airbus A330-200 and will operate on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays leaving Manchester as VS318 at 16:40 in the evening and arriving in Delhi the next day at 06:05.
The return flight, VS319 (operating Tuesdays, Fridays & Sundays) will leave Delhi at 08:10 arriving into Manchester at 12:10.
January 2021 also sees Virgin Atlantic operating a three-times-per-week Boeing 747 flight to Barbados (BGI/TBPB) from Manchester leaving on a Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
London Heathrow
As previously announced, Virgin Atlantic is to start operating daily flights from London Heathrow to Cape Town (CPT/FACT) from 25th October using a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
VS478 will operate as a night flight departing Heathrow at 16:20 and arriving Cape Town at 05:55. VS479 will depart Cape Town at 08:00 landing at Heathrow at 18:00.
Virgin Atlantic is also increasing the frequency on its route from Heathrow to Havana, Cuba with the addition of a 3rd weekly flight using a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
Virgin is the only UK airline to fly direct to Havana (HAV/MUHA) and the extra flight means it will be offering 45% more capacity than in Winter 2019 to the Cuban Capital.
Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Virgin Atlantic said: “2020 is an extremely exciting year of continued growth for Virgin Atlantic and increasing our presence out of Manchester is a huge focus for us. Not only are we the headline sponsor of the Manchester Pride Festival but we’re delighted to announce a new service flying three times a week from Manchester to Delhi, additional capacity into Barbados from Manchester as well as a Clubhouse opening this summer. This year will also see Flybe transform into Virgin Connect, and we’re excited to offer customers flying from the north 47 daily flights throughout the UK, Ireland and across Europe.”
“2020 marks our 20th anniversary of flying to India and as the destination continues to grow in popularity for both business and leisure travel, we’re thrilled to fly to Delhi for very first time from Manchester, our home in the north. Additionally, we look forward launching new services from Heathrow to Sao Paulo and Cape Town as well as increasing capacity on our Heathrow to Havana route.”
Flights will be available for sale from 3rd March 2020 at virginatlantic.com