Manchester: Virgin Atlantic Route News & Base Updates

[CM.]

Virgins route to Islamabad will restart on September 30th rather than October.

Source of info: SPD travels on Twitter

 

[Jerry]

Interesting spot here by SPD travels. Manchester to Boston and Las Vegas is listed on Virgin's website.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1440709611812581381

 

[CM.]

Virgin Atlantic have confirmed that they will not operate Manchester- Los Angeles during Summer 2022 but do say they will return that route in 2023.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1456283474713841666

 

[CM.]

The Bridgetown Barbados route appears to be suspended during the Summer season. If a shame as Manchester seems to have lost a lot of long haul connectivity. It would be nice to see more added in future.

Source of info: SPD travels on Twitter.

 

[mullion]

Not really a summer destination due to weather as can be very hot and humid and subject to tropical storms

 

[Land23R]

The same could be said of Florida in July-Sep but Virgin hopefully will be operating 12 x weekly to MCO.
Having just watched on Sky, a BA and VS synchronised take off for JFK from 27L and 27R at LHR was a salutary reminder of how far MAN has fallen behind on US routes compared to where we were just 2 or 3 years ago. It will be a real challenge for MAN to recover some of the lost routes from before, as well as because of, covid. We can celebrate the return of a few services and the introduction of EIUK but the broader picture for 2022 at this stage is a concern.

 

[mullion]

Just commencing it take off VS127 outbound to New York

 

[Scottie Dog]

Today saw the restart of flights from Manchester to both New York (JFK) and Orlando airports. Flights are operated by Virgin Atlantic using a mixture of Airbus A330 and Boeing 787 aircraft.

 

[CM.]

Not long to go until the Atlanta route will resume. Flights start on December 2nd.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1461292609981329410

 

[michael]

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed but since the demise of the B747's and the implementation of the A330 300 Virgin have added 30 minutes to the flight time on the Manchester to Orlando route - the 747's used to be 9hours 25 minutes officially but the A330's are now timed at 9hours 55 minutes. Does anyone know if this is due to Air traffic restrictions or simply the A330's are short (comparatively) on power making them slower across the Atlantic into the headwinds?

 

[Llandudno]

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed but since the demise of the B747's and the implementation of the A330 300 Virgin have added 30 minutes to the flight time on the Manchester to Orlando route - the 747's used to be 9hours 25 minutes officially but the A330's are now timed at 9hours 55 minutes. Does anyone know if this is due to Air traffic restrictions or simply the A330's are short (comparatively) on power making them slower across the Atlantic into the headwinds?

Likely to be an ETOPS issue. Open to correction but I’m sure The B747 is ETOPS 360 but the A330 is ETOPS 180, which basically dictates how far away from an airport the aircraft can be, the B744 could stray further so perhaps took a more direct routing. That and the B744 was faster, the fastest subsonic airline IIRC.

 

[michael]

Likely to be an ETOPS issue. Open to correction but I’m sure The B747 is ETOPS 360 but the A330 is ETOPS 180, which basically dictates how far away from an airport the aircraft can be, the B744 could stray further so perhaps took a more direct routing. That and the B744 was faster, the fastest subsonic airline IIRC.

Thanks for the info Llandudno, you may well be right but according to FR24 the flight paths are still varying between the more northern route heading over Newfoundland and down the eastern seaboard and then other days they're literally straight out over Ireland with the next piece of land being the Floridian coastline. Todays flight is looking like 9hours 35 on the northern route only just south of Greenland.

 

[mullion]

You may find that 747 was slightly faster than A330 as the 747 was always known to be one of the fastest airliners

 

[ukblue1]

Why have Virgin been rostering A350s to JFK recently?

 

[Scottie Dog]

Why have Virgin been rostering A350s to JFK recently?

I'm afraid that I can't help you on that however maybe #Llandudno could offer an answer?

 

[CM.]

A350-1000 G-VEVE has been delivered to Virgin and has arrived at Manchester today. It’s planned to be parked at Manchester for a couple of weeks whilst the covid effects subsides and demand increases.

Alphafive

 

[LS@MAN]

Why have Virgin been rostering A350s to JFK recently?

My understanding from some sources was due to increase demand and load factor, therefore a bigger aircraft was required.
Good news if true!

 

[Llandudno]

My understanding from some sources was due to increase demand and load factor, therefore a bigger aircraft was required.
Good news if true!

Not passenger load demand, possibly cargo but about 160-170 pax on all the A350 flights so far. It could be due to staffing (A350 pilots availability versus A330 pilots?)

 

[michael]

New York JFK was on the B789 before Christmas

 

[CM.]

Disappointing. I wonder why? Loads not the best?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1493960616905777154