Virgin Atlantic is finest identified for linking Britain with the United States, however there’s one other market that’s more and more vital for the provider. 

India now represents the airline’s largest progress space exterior of the U.S., and there’s much more enlargement to come back. 

On Wednesday, the corporate introduced plans to double the variety of flights between London Heathrow and Mumbai. A second every day service is because of start on October 27 and can be operated by Virgin’s flagship Airbus A350-1000. 

The provider additionally serves Delhi double-daily and final week added the southern metropolis of Bengaluru to its community. All present routes are usually served by the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Virgin’s International Partners

To present further feeder site visitors for its nonstop providers from India, Virgin Atlantic codeshares with IndiGo to supply 36 connections at its Indian hubs.

On the London facet, it additionally companions with Delta Air Lines for transit choices to and from North America. Roughly a 3rd of Virgin Atlantic’s whole passengers, or about 3,000 folks a day, join at Heathrow.

Virgin stated the addition of one other Mumbai flight “signaled its continued commitment to the region.” By subsequent yr, the airline will supply greater than one million seats to and from India yearly, which it describes as “a key strategic market.” It says this marks a 350% enhance in comparison with 2019. 

As nicely as passenger site visitors, the bigger plane and enhanced frequencies permit for extra items to be carried by Virgin Atlantic Cargo. Once the fifth every day flight to India launches in October, freight capability can be up 336% versus 2019. 

Additional Indian Cabin Crew

To higher accommodate the rising variety of Indian passengers on its providers, Virgin can also be ramping up native recruitment.

The airline is quadrupling the variety of Indian-based cabin crew working on its India routes for the approaching summer time season. An common flight will now have 4 Indian flight attendants “to deliver a more personalized service.”

Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Atlantic has described India as “a huge opportunity” for the airline, including that the corporate is “anticipating a huge growth in demand for international travel from the region.”

Jarvinen’s feedback echo these of Air India CEO, Campbell Wilson. Speaking at the Skift India Summit in Delhi final month, he described “the wonder of India”, and instructed the market is now on par with Continental Europe and North America. 

Despite the nation’s fast aviation progress, it stays comparatively underserved according to Indian aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.

“Even if, as per projections, the number of domestic passengers reaches 635 million by fiscal year 2030, India will still be one of the least penetrated of the 20 largest markets,” he stated in January.

Airlines Sector Stock Index Performance Year-to-Date

What am I taking a look at? The efficiency of airline sector shares inside the ST200. The index contains corporations publicly traded throughout international markets together with community carriers, low-cost carriers, and different associated corporations.

The Skift Travel 200 (ST200) combines the monetary efficiency of practically 200 journey corporations value greater than a trillion {dollars} right into a single quantity. See more airlines sector financial performance. 

Read the full methodology behind the Skift Travel 200.

Photo Credit: Airbus/A Doumenjou/Master Films