Summary

  • Virgin Atlantic’s summer schedule includes 25 destinations from London Heathrow, Manchester, and Edinburgh.
  • 85% of the carrier’s services are to the US and India.
  • Brand-new Heathrow-Bengluaru started in March, while Manchester-Las Vegas resumed in June.

Virgin Atlantic celebrated its 40th anniversary in June 2024. The SkyTeam airline and transatlantic joint venture partner of Delta Air Lines has 44 aircraft: 17 Boeing 787-9s, 12 Airbus A350-1000s, 10 A330-300s, and five A330neos. Its fleet averages 7.2 years. Of all UK and foreign airlines, Virgin has the second-highest number of long-haul flights from the country.

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Virgin’s summer route plan

Northern airlines, including Virgin, will operate summer schedules until October 26 based on IATA slot seasons. Between now and then, it will serve 25 destinations from London Heathrow, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Nearly all routes are terminators; they don’t stop en route or continue elsewhere. However, five exceptions, all in the Caribbean, are tagged with Barbados and Montego Bay.

Virgin Atlantic planes at LHR

Photo: Ceri Breeze | Shutterstock
 

When Virgin’s summer network is combined, nearly three in four departures are to the US, unchanged from the pre-pandemic 2019. Combined with India, the two countries have a staggering 85% of its flights.

Some routes have fewer or more flights than stated below, usually for an extremely short time – even once. But given the large table size, I have not stated them, the equipment, or other details. Despite working so closely with Delta, only Virgin’s flights are shown below. I have not stated one-stop services separately.

Frequency

Virgin’s route(s) in the summer

Six to seven daily

Heathrow-JFK

Triple daily

Heathrow-Los Angeles

Double daily

Heathrow-Boston, Delhi, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco

10 to 12 weekly

Manchester-Orlando

Daily

Heathrow-Atlanta, Barbados (one weekly flight is a terminator, one continues to Antigua, two continue to Grenada, and three continue to St Vincent), Bengaluru (started on March 31, 2024), Johannesburg, Lagos, Las Vegas, Mumbai, Montego Bay (three are terminators, two are via Nassau, and two are via Providenciales), Seattle, Shanghai Pudong, Tampa, Tel Aviv (due to return on September 5), Washington Dulles; Manchester-Atlanta and New York JFK

Three weekly

Manchester-Las Vegas (restored in June 2024)

Twice-weekly

Edinburgh-Orlando

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What about the winter?

Virgin will switch to winter schedules on October 27. While its cold season plan is subject to change, it expects to fly to 27 destinations. They will be covered in full another time.

G-VCRU Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (1)

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

Back are winter-seasonal flights from Heathrow to Cape Town (daily), Dubai (daily), Malé (daily), and St Lucia (two to three weekly). Meanwhile, Heathrow-Mumbai will be double daily for the first time, meaning Virgin will have a record of five daily India flights. Heathrow-Barbados, also a good winter destination, will be primarily double daily; multiple weekly flights will continue elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Year-round routes, such as JFK, Boston, and Los Angeles, will have fewer winter flights. This will help with loads and yields in the off-season and free up equipment and slots for Virgin’s winter-only routes.

Heathrow-Toronto will resume on March 30, 2025, the start of summer 2025 for northern airlines.

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Heathrow-St Lucia flights are due to resume on October 28 and operate in two ways. Initially, they will run twice-weekly via Barbados. From December, for the peak season, they are scheduled to operate on a three-times-weekly terminator basis, replacing the one-stop service. However, at the time of writing, these flights are not bookable.

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