Manchester: Virgin Atlantic Route News & Base Updates

[User001]

David you have a PM.

 

[Dobbo]

All very mysterious User!

So, the next items on my watch list for BS are in respect of new routes: Detroit, and LA. In respect of existing routes, San Francisco to become year round and an increase in frequency for S18.

All assuming the global economy does not tank...

 

[Dobbo]

There is a story doing the rounds that the VS service to ATL will drop to 5x weekly when the SFO route starts? Any substance to this?

 

[jfy1999]

There is a story doing the rounds that the VS service to ATL will drop to 5x weekly when the SFO route starts? Any substance to this?

I don't have any solid confirmation but it was said on another forum that one of the main reasons for ATL being daily was high demand for connections to SFO, so a daily ATL flight might not be in demand for a while after SFO starts.

 

[User001]

It's not true. Dropping ATL to 5 weekly does nothing to help aircraft utilisation, and one of the main connection banks is the southern states inc Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Ketucky. The SFO route is about growth and ATL is naff for BOS connections anyway.

 

[Dobbo]

That's good. Would that be 5 based aircraft? I recall a while back User mentioned that VS wanted to open a large base at MAN - is this the first stage?

 

[User001]

There is a Dutch article talking about the new VS/BE partnership and the benefits for the AMS/RTM flights.

It states that passengers from RTM-AMS can connect onto the new SFO/BOS routes from MAN, as well as Orlando, Bridgetown, Atlanta, St. Lucia and Las Vegas direct from Manchester.

Anyone else spot the re-introduced Carribean route?

 

[David_itl]

It's a route that is much better suited to an A330 than the 744 that operated before!

 

[Land23R]

There is a Dutch article talking about the new VS/BE partnership and the benefits for the AMS/RTM flights.

It states that passengers from RTM-AMS can connect onto the new SFO/BOS routes from MAN, as well as Orlando, Bridgetown, Atlanta, St. Lucia and Las Vegas direct from Manchester.

Anyone else spot the re-introduced Carribean route?

I couldn't remember whether it was VS or bmi that served St Lucia at one time. When was it last operated?

 

[User001]

Virgin operated St. Lucia and BMI served Antigua. St Lucia was served by VS 2007-2009, and interestingly in 2008 carries similar numbers to their BGI route, but, was cut. I forget the official reason for the cut.

 

[David_itl]

both operated to St Lucia. From the CAA's records:

 

[User001]

And what was more interesting about the Dutch article, the St Lucia reference has supposedly come direct from the Virgin spokesman that was quoted in the UK press about the launch of SFO/BOS.

 

[User001]

This is the quote from the Dutch side. The below extract was talking MAN specific due to the nature of the AMS/RTM connections, which are only to MAN as they don't serve the routes from GLA/LGW, the other 2 airports with the BE codes.


The Dutch Vice President Commercial at Virgin Atlantic, Erik Varwijk, lets find out: "our cooperation with Flybe offers us a great opportunity to reach customers that from major cities in the uk and Europe want to cross the ocean. We look forward to offer easy connections to our most popular destinations like the Caribbean Islands Barbados and St. Lucia and the American cities Orlando and Las Vegas

 

[Dobbo]

Is DL/VS a candidate for the scissor hub? Or are their ambitions slightly different?

 

[User001]

No Manchester will be just a hub in the normal sense.

 

[Dobbo]

Ah, okay.

Any chance of smoking you out on this? Only other idea I have is someone like Ryanair accepting transfers...

 

[EGCC_MAN]

There was talk in the trade press afew months ago of US independent carrier National Airlines operating a B772 to MAN from Orlando and another city in NE USA. All has gone quiet since then. Could be an outlyer.

 

[User001]

National couldn't source the B777 so the plan fell through. Even though plenty of B777's heading off to the desert, not many are suitable to continue flying. Better off as spare parts.

Anyway, the scissor hub may fall through, as the airline involved isn't in great shape at the moment looking at their latest financials.

 

[Dobbo]

No hints or clues?!

 

[User001]

Airline route have now updated this news to give the flight numbers.

Boston will be VS121/122, and SFO will be VS125/126.