VS Announces MAN-SFO/BOS from March 2017

Good news although the crews won't enjoy working 10-11 hour flights to SFO & LAS on an A333 with no crew rest.

It's encouraging to see VS properly investing in MAN as a third hub though - hopefully they can capitalise on BA's London-centric policy, particularly if they can use Flybe to drum up some connecting traffic.

Good news although the crews won't enjoy working 10-11 hour flights to SFO & LAS on an A333 with no crew rest.
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I believe they will be using some curtained off UPPER seats to provide crew rest when required (under new EASA rules)...

Good news although the crews won't enjoy working 10-11 hour flights to SFO & LAS on an A333 with no crew rest.
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I believe they will be using some curtained off UPPER seats to provide crew rest when required (under new EASA rules)...

Indeed that's the plan. In fact the CC use any spare UC seats now on the MAN-ATL route though of late that has been difficult due to UC selling rather well on that route but I'm sure on the LAS and SFO routes they will block off a couple of seats for crew use.

As a side, though unrelated to the blocked off seats, the A330 fleet should also be well on the way through their UC refit programme too by March 2017 too

Jon

Hi All

Yes very exciting news indeed. I actually had a word with somebody from Virgin about this before Christmas at the Hilton. It was not on the cards at the time, I basically made reference to the fact that Thomas Cook were adding US destinations for fun. And how Virgin was always focusing on Heathrow far to much. I suggested they should try and mirror what they have done with the ATL flights. As Manchester has been in need of a west coast flight for years.

I hope the addition of SFO and BOS in 2017 will be the start of something bigger. Maybe we will finally get that clubhouse at Manchester after all. With regard to the A330's I think they are due to start the refit this year. Been flying on them to ATL allot and the IFE system has been hit and miss. On one of my most recent flights the screen was broken completely. Was given an iPad by the crew.

Don't know if it's just Upper Class or the entire plane getting the refit. As when Delta operated ATL they had A330's on the route for a bit and they did a refit. Delta added all new IFE flatbed suites and underfloor crew rests. So don't know if Virgin will do the same.

[mitchja]

I believe it's just the J cabin which is getting new seats (I *think* it's going to be the Dreamliner version of the UCS with just one row of seats down the middle of the cabin).

If you speak to anyone in VS customer relations or customer service, they will all still deny this is happening though and are adamant that the J seat on the A333's is the same and the rest of the fleet lol - probably just been told to say that!!

No idea if VS can retrofit a crew rest module to them though? I know the Airbus aircraft are modular and so they can have either a galley, restroom or crew rest module fitted below the passenger cabin (or nothing as is the case for the VS A333's with more room for cargo) but not sure if that can be done once in service? It's going to be a long flight for the crew to SFO without a proper rest area though!!

I don't think VS are doing anything else with the A333's.

That's not good to hear about the IFE seen as it's the newest version on all the A333's!!

1A to 5A will be curtained off for crew rest on LAS and SFO. It's EASA regulation that crew have a break on these flights

1A to 5A will be curtained off for crew rest on LAS and SFO. It's EASA regulation that crew have a break on these flights

That's 5 out of 33 seats - 15%.

That's going to impact on the bottom line at some point in time if the routes prove popular.

Is there any coincidence in the fact that those flights will start 2 years to the day since LR finished at Manchester?

Excellent news all round. SFO is a great location and with the SFO Clubhouse going Airside by 2017, it should all tie in nicely!

Delta and VS's joint venture is metal neutral meaning that they share revenues no matter what plane flies the route.

TBH I wasn't expecting the A330 to stick around once the Dreamliners got going into production but starting October the refurbs will start happening and I guess there is also the opportunity to stick crew rest down in the hold if it costs less than the potentially lost revenue from the 5 seats over the 3x a week flights. I can't imagine MAN-SFO/BOS doing a lot of cargo traffic but then if they are only rotating these flights a couple of times a week where they need crew rest the economics might not add up.

Alas, FlyBe will not be an earning or spending partner, according to CS on Twitter :(

Alas, FlyBe will not be an earning or spending partner, according to CS on Twitter :(

That's a pity as I noticed FlyBe flights (via MAN) now coming up when scoping out fares for GLA-MCO. Certainly adding Flybe as a partner is a great move to allow us Scots to avoid London.