Virgin Atlantic’s CEO Shai Weiss announces a new route from London Heathrow to Bengaluru during a press conference in the city on Wednesday, March 03, 2024.
Credit: DH PHOTO/PUSHKAR V
Bengaluru: After launching its first daily service from Bengaluru to London’s Heathrow airport last week, British carrier Virgin Atlantic on Wednesday announced a second daily flight from Mumbai to the British capital starting October. This will bring the airline operator’s total daily flights from India to London at 5, with 2 flying from Delhi, 2 from Mumbai and 1 from Bengaluru.
As per chief executive officer Shai Wess, there is “infinite demand” for air travel from India, and the company will ramp up seats for India to over 1 million by 2025, a 350% capacity increase from 2019. India is currently the 3rd largest market for Virgin Atlantic after North America and the Caribbean, and is the second biggest growth driver after the United States, the company said.
Apart from air travel, Virgin Atlantic is also betting on the new direct services to enhance air cargo movement of goods from the fashion, pharmaceuticals, and tech sectors. With five daily services, Virgin Atlantic Cargo will offer over 40 million kg of space to and from India, a 336% increase in capacity versus 2019, as per the company.
“There is a huge opportunity for us in India, it has a dynamic, fast-growing economy and we’re anticipating huge growth in demand for international travel from the region,” Wess said.
The company is also accelerating hiring from the country, and has quadrupled its Indian cabin crew to 200, ensuring at least 4 Indian cabin crew members in each flight originating from the country, it said.
Virgin Atlantic has partnered with Indigo to offer connecting flights on a single ticket for those travelling to London from locations apart from its three hubs, and Wess said it will continue this exclusive partnership for the foreseeable future.
The executive also touched upon the growing need for business class travel, especially to and from cities like Bengaluru, which the company will look to address sometime in the future. For now, however, it will continue to focus on a competitive pricing strategy to fend off established competitors on this route.