Virgin Atlantic

[ethanegcc]

Amid, all the controversy and disappointments for winter - it is here! Virgin Inaugural flight to San Francisco is on the departure boards.

11:55 VS125 San Francisco (SFO) Virgin Atlantic Airways 333 Scheduled

 

[Land23R]

I wonder if it will get any coverage on the BBC North West or Granada News?

By the way, the DL to JFK was over 90% full today according to the seat plan 1 hour before departure.

As well as the VS winter schedules I asked about, I'm sure those with access to advance information will be looking out for first indications as to what we can expect in s2018.

 

[David_itl]

LAS hadn't gone back to year round, it was more of a 9 or 10 month schedule.

 

[Dobbo]

I wonder if it will get any coverage on the BBC North West or Granada News?

By the way, the DL to JFK was over 90% full today according to the seat plan 1 hour before departure.

As well as the VS winter schedules I asked about, I'm sure those with access to advance information will be looking out for first indications as to what we can expect in s2018.

It'll be interesting to see what happens in 2018. I don't expect any growth but getting close to a repeat of 2017 would be a good outcome.

Today is a good day, let's hope this service remains next year.

 

[Land23R]

SFO service did get a mention on the brief BBC NW News at 08.27 with a comment by Simon Calder. Hopefully more coverage later.

 

[Land23R]

Re Virgin winter schedules:

If I'm making sense of what is shown for late Nov/early
Dec. for non stop flights, then MCO doesn't seem to operate Mon or Tues. Are there any days when 2 flights operate (as they did today)?

LAS & BGI only seem to be 1 stop/2 stop options on certain days i.e. nothing direct. (I thought LAS had gone year round).

Not convinced by what I tried on the VS web site, I've just looked at Skyscanner for early December, and the picture is a little brighter.

Although there is no MCO on a Monday, there is a BGI as usual. LAS also shows a direct flight just on a Sunday I think. So my concern there were no BGI or LAS flights at all was unfounded it seems.

There is a Tuesday MCO and there appears to be 2 flights on a Saturday at 11.30 and 12.30. I didn't check all the days of the week so I'm not sure if there are any other days with 2 x MCO, but it suggests we do get a third aircraft for weekend at least.

It's also possible the early December schedules are different for late November departures which is what I initially tried to check on the Virgin site.

 

[Land23R]

A decent report on BBC NW at 18.30 (not a mention on Granada).

Comments from Charlie Cornish and a couple of business folk but nobody from Virgin.

Some shots on board the a/c and the reporter said there were 225 passengers. Not sure what to make of that for the inaugural flight given there was a significant Trade & Business group and no doubt some other guests on the flight.

 

[Land23R]

There's an article from Business Traveller posted on SSC - Airport thread which is worth reading and did include a comment from Virgin.
"Speaking at Manchester airport, Virgin Atlantic’s chief commercial officer, Shai Weiss said:
“We want to offer our customers services to places they want to travel to and this summer, we’ll have 26 per cent more seats out of the city than last year, cementing our commitment to Manchester and the Northern Powerhouse.”.

The article referred to 30 in the Trade Mission. I'm not sure they got the flight times quoted correct for SFO and BOS.

 

[ethanegcc]

There is one small gripe I have with this, however: business travellers need year-round!
A much better solution, in my opinion, would have been (for winter):
First A330 : MAN-JFK 2x weekly, MAN-SFO 3x weekly
Second A330 : MAN-ATL 5x weekly, MAN-JFK 2x weekly

Also, seems all of the Virgin representatives seemed to be on the seemingly more important LHR-SEA launch

 

[Land23R]

I agree that flights 6 months of the year are little use to business, same as ORD with AA.

Virgin were represented yesterday as were the government. From B-daily:
"Virgin Atlantic chief commercial officer Shai Weis marked the occasion alongside with Minister for International Trade Greg Hands and Manchester Airports Group’s chief exec Charlie Cornish by greeting guests ahead of the flight’s departure"

 

[Coathanger16]

Virgin A330 Upper Class refit:

https://www.businesstraveller.com/b...in-atlantic-unveils-revised-a330-upper-class/

If I'm not mistaken, the seats themselves look very similar to the A340 Upper Class Seats.

 

[Land23R]

The Easter school holidays must have started early for some as the VS check-in area was bulging this morning 09.30 - 10.15. Lots of families with kids and even a school party. Unless there were a few latecomers for the early MCO and ATL, the pax would have been for the 11.55 SFO and 12.45 MCO. 720 seats between those 2 flights and I only wish we knew how many were on the SFO.

According to the seat plan, DL is showing just 7 empty seats, but with 90 minutes to departure I'm not sure whether that's final.

 

[David_itl]

2 year partnership between VS, Visit Britain and Marketing Manchester for the new routes

http://www.eturbonews.com/78272/virgin-atlantic-visitbritain-and-marketing-manchester-promote-ne

 

[ethanegcc]

Hopefully this shows that the expansion in Manchester is there for the long run and they are going to stick to it and be resilient, rather than saying, after an uncertain 2017, 'we tried and it didn't work'.

 

[Dobbo]

Two years certainly demonstrates the intent, lets hope they follow through.

Frankly, they probably know the fundamentals that I bang on about and if this year is okay (against the backdrop of Trump/Brexit) they will probably have another go next year.

 

[ethanegcc]

I hope so, Boston may go but I'm sure a better suited destination for VS could be added. BOS isn't particularly high-yield, not even from LHR so it is best to leave it to TCX. Why not try 3x weekly MIA/LAX, or more adventurous SEA or DTW 3x week. That way the schedules (number of a/c) could be kept broadly similar to this year. I'm not expecting much but perhaps they could announce a new destination to replace BOS. In my opinion, Miami or Los Angeles is probably most likely, but you never know, they could do somewhere like Varadero (they have just launched from Gatwick) or St Lucia?

I would certainly be disappointed and surprised if SFO didn't return.

 

[Aceshigh]

This is great news!
At bloody last.
Should have happened years ago and if there is a criticism to be made, why not put this strategy in place January rather than April when a significant number of bookings will have already been made.

Still mustn't carp.

 

[Aceshigh]

This is great news!
At bloody last.
Should have happened years ago and if there is a criticism to be made, why not put this strategy in place January rather than April when a significant number of bookings will have already been made.

Still mustn't carp.

 

[Dobbo]

@ethanegcc I think you are right as regards BOS.

I'd like to think SFO would stay, and the last update I heard was that LAX and MIA were still "on" for 2018. That was before SFO/BOS were cut short so this is likely to be out of date.

Difficulty is that to rotate off SFO you almost certainly need a shorter route. There are enough aircraft at MAN now that they might be able to rotate two aircraft through JFK, LAX and SFO.

 

[Aceshigh]

Any news on loads anybody ?