Job creation and demand from expats will underpin the decision to launch daily flights between Heathrow and the Mother City.
The very first Virgin Atlantic flight was in June 1984, which flew from London’s Gatwick Airport to Newark in New York. Forty years later, the airline flies to 30 destinations worldwide.
Virgin, founded by British business magnate Sir Richard Branson, has recently resuscitated its seasonal Cape Town-to-London-Heathrow flight, which will extend until April 2025 to include the busy Easter period.
The airline also has flights between London and Johannesburg. Flights are on Virgin’s Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
Speaking to Moneyweb during a recent visit to South Africa, Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss poured cold water on any hopes for a permanent, all-year-round Cape Town-Heathrow flight in the near future.
Although Virgin does fly between Johannesburg and Heathrow throughout the year, demand for Cape Town-London flights (outside the holiday season) needs to pick up significantly, he says.
“There’s a slight chance of year-round flights to Cape Town in 2027. But that will depend on increased demand from the business sector due to semigration to the Western Cape, or when more expats want to fly between the two cities,” adds Weiss.
“More jobs, innovation, and start-ups in Cape Town will probably be the underpinning of year-round flights,” he notes.
The London-Cape Town Virgin flights currently operate six months of the year.
Besides reaching the milestone of 40 years in the sky, the year 2024 also marked Virgin’s 20 years of seasonal flights between Cape Town and London. Virgin has been flying between Heathrow and Johannesburg for 28 years.
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Cargo on flights
Weiss notes that the seasonal flights not only provide a direct connection between Cape Town and London but are also a boost for the transportation of goods between the two popular cities.
Although Virgin Atlantic does not operate cargo-only flights, it transports time-sensitive agricultural products in the underbelly of its planes back to the UK.
“Fish and fresh produce are transported on the route … We also transport a lot of blueberries from South Africa,” Weiss says.
During Covid-19, when passenger flights across the globe ground to a halt due to widespread lockdowns, Virgin Atlantic stayed busy by operating cargo-only flights.
“That’s stopped and we have a small operation between London and Brussels on the back end of regular flights.
“Demand for cargo is through the roof at present,” Weiss notes.
This has been brought on by geopolitical conflict, especially in the Middle East and Russia, and congested shipping lanes.
“So, there has been a sustained high demand for cargo – above the long-term average,” he says.
Virgin Atlantic flies to 19 countries, operating annually between 20 000 and 25 000 flights with a total of around six million passengers.
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The stats:
- Virgin Atlantic has had 108 aircraft in total since it started flying in 1984 – 63 Airbus and 45 Boeing.
- The airline has served more than 21 million glasses of champagne and over 192 million meals on its flights since it took to the skies.
- Over the past four decades, Virgin Atlantic crew members have walked more than 660 km up and down the aisles of aircraft during flights.
- Virgin Atlantic allows assistance dogs for disabled passengers on its planes and to date, more than 500 such animals have been on flights.
- The uniforms of Virgin Atlantic crew members changed five times in the past 40 years.
- Three of Virgin’s original cabin crew members are still flying with the airline – Mary Chaffey, Ursula Ross, and Malcolm Mackinnon.
- In 2019, Virgin Atlantic became the first UK airline to order Airbus A330neos that can fly on sustainable aircraft fuel.
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.
