VS to trial Belfast to Orlando direct June / June 2015

Apparently Virgin are going to be offering this route in 2015, and have opened Virgin Holiday stores in Belfast...







Edit to thread title by mod now more details are known .......Nick

There's a virgin holiday shop in Walsall, doesn't mean they fly from there...

Is Belfast a big enough airport for long haul planes?

If you mean big enough to handle a 747 then yeah without issue. May not be able to fully load but who says they will be using a 747?

Runway 07/25 2,780m 9,121ft

Hopefully this route comes to fruition. Any word on when seats may be released?

[buns]

You have to presume that VH have the demographic information and customer location to support setting up a service.

buns

Would imagine it will be like the GLA route. A couple of flights a week for a few summer months each year. Its a pity they don't think about adding different destinations to the bases they already have.

Still think a limited NYC flight out of EDI or GLA would have a huge appeal given the choices at the moment.

David

Would imagine it will be like the GLA route. A couple of flights a week for a few summer months each year. Its a pity they don't think about adding different destinations to the bases they already have.

Still think a limited NYC flight out of EDI or GLA would have a huge appeal given the choices at the moment.

David

Couldn't agree more regarding a NYC flight from either EDI or GLA. Mrs J and I would use the service regularly. Would save us travelling to London so often.

Dan

There's a virgin holiday shop in Walsall, doesn't mean they fly from there...

Is Belfast a big enough airport for long haul planes?

But they do offer services that are arguably easy to get to from there.

I can't see why Virgin Holidays would open a shop in Belfast, which would be to sell capacity on their rivals.

The other option is that they are signing a codeshare with Aer Lingus to get pax to LGW.

Would imagine it will be like the GLA route. A couple of flights a week for a few summer months each year. Its a pity they don't think about adding different destinations to the bases they already have.

Still think a limited NYC flight out of EDI or GLA would have a huge appeal given the choices at the moment.

David

Couldn't agree more regarding a NYC flight from either EDI or GLA. Mrs J and I would use the service regularly. Would save us travelling to London so often.

Dan

Independence

I'm led to believe this is true.

And that's not all - GLA to LAS as well.

I'm led to believe this is true.

And that's not all - GLA to LAS as well.

Yup - both routes will be on a trial basis.

BFS-MCO will operate 4 times in June/July and GLA-LAS will do 4 trips in SEP/OCT.

First time VS has had scheduled service to Northern Ireland.

Operating on an LGW 744

Thomas Cook airlines are also trialling Belfast to Orlando & Vegas

Be interesting to see if the Belfast route is viable.

What do most Northern Irish people do at present if they want to go to MCO? Go via London? Or via Dublin (with the advantage of lower taxes and US immigration pre-clearance)?

What do most Northern Irish people do at present if they want to go to MCO? Go via London? Or via Dublin (with the advantage of lower taxes and US immigration pre-clearance)?

Given there is no APD in Belfast it will be cheaper to operate than from GLA/MAN/LGW. Not sure what taxes are like ex DUB

[honey lamb]

What do most Northern Irish people do at present if they want to go to MCO? Go via London? Or via Dublin (with the advantage of lower taxes and US immigration pre-clearance)?

Given there is no APD in Belfast it will be cheaper to operate than from GLA/MAN/LGW. Not sure what taxes are like ex DUB

No APD ex-DUB. That s one of the reasons it was dropped ex- Belfast because of the proximity of Dublin. People were travelling south to avail of that benefit

[Nottingham Nick]

BBC News article - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-28314686

Nick

Didn't VS do GLA-LAS before?

Didn't VS do GLA-LAS before?

Not according to the website (not, of course, that that's necessarily a reliable source!)

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/tr ... -news.html

No they've never operated GLA-LAS

Came across this earlier, in case it's of interest to anyone:
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/travel-information/customer-service/latest-news.html

Ah oops - I see that my post has been consolidated with the existing one. I had completely missed this. Thanks mod

I imagine the APD reduction on international flights out of BFS is a factor here. The distance is just over 4000 miles which puts the flight in Band C, which is a £13 tax from Belfast instead of a £72 tax from elsewhere.

I imagine that BFS will have granted Virgin some nice discounts to attract their business and try to build the airport as a jumping off point for Atlantic flights.

BFS has a full runway (unlike BHD). The President of the US has been several times in Air Force One, the Japanese government's 747 also landed here last year for the G8. And there was an A380 visiting a couple of years back. The point made about the capacity to handle passengers is well made. I'm sure they can cope with one 747 a day but things could get "interesting" if there were several.

Regarding the factors in choosing between Belfast and Dublin, there are a few. It takes about 30-45 minutes to reach BFS from central Belfast. A significant part of the distance is a single-carriage road and congestion is likely - it's out in the country, surrounded by fields and small villages. However it is quite a small airport so you are likely to be through customs and security fairly quickly, although there is less choice in terms of restaurants and shops etc.

From central Belfast you can drive to Dublin and get parked within two hours. If you are closer to the Irish border, say Portadown or Newry, getting to Dublin is probably faster. Almost all of the distance is motorway or high quality dual carriageway. Dublin also has a significant advantage in that the US immigration checks are done within the airport before departure. Customs happens on the US side but is much faster.

My favourite way to fly to the USA west coast is to fly via London out of BHD, which is about a mile or two from central Belfast and can be reached within ten minutes most of the time in a car or taxi. An economy flight to, say, Las Vegas usually runs me about £900 all-in this way. Out of Dublin, there are direct flights to SFO but plenty of connecting flights to choose from. It's about EUR850 or so, depending on when, so it's a notch cheaper but I have to connect at the other end.

The Thomas Cook flight to Las Vegas out of BHD has been running on and off for some years. If I recall correctly they fly at weekends only. The only reason I never tried them is because I'm a bit leery of package operators, although I'm they're probably just fine.

An interesting take on these new routes from Raffles at headforpoints: http://www.headforpoints.com/2014/07/18 ... ow-routes/

He seems a little baffled by them but as one of the comments suggests, perhaps he's missing the point that, essentially, they're Virgin Holidays charter flights and VH will sell most of the seats on them.

I am pretty sure both of these new services are being operated by DL with VS as a code share.
Maybe this is DL's backdoor entry to more UK routes.

No they are being operated by a VS 744