Another new route for Manchester for summer 2019

Shortly to be announced another new route for MAN for next summer

I was going to post something similar however I decided against it because someone always says something along the lines of “do you have a reliable source”.

I find it rather offensive because it’s more or less saying I’m not a reliable source. So I thought I won’t bother sharing snippets of information again.

Press release

30th May 2018

VIRGIN ATLANTIC ANNOUNCES SIGNIFICANT EXPANSION AT MANCHESTER AIRPORT

§ Virgin Atlantic is increasing flights from Manchester by up to 20%, from March 2019

§ Expansion includes a new direct service to Los Angeles and double the number of flights to Las Vegas

§ Increased connections to the rest of the USA through our Delta partnership

Virgin Atlantic has announced significant growth in flights from Manchester, firmly cementing the airline’s commitment to the region. From 2019, the number of flights is set to increase by up to 20%, in what will be the airline’s biggest ever year flying from the city with up to six daily departures.

A new route to Los Angeles, coupled with an increase in services to both Boston and Las Vegas, means Virgin Atlantic will be offering customers up to 14,000 seats a week directly from Manchester to the USA and Caribbean.

A number of routes, including both New York and Atlanta, will be flown on the Boeing 747, the largest in Virgin Atlantic’s fleet. This means even more customers from the North West will be able to take advantage of one stop connections to over 200 US destinations, thanks to its partnership with Delta Air Lines.

The partnership with FlyBe ensures customers from across UK regions have opportunity to connect through Manchester, truly securing the airport as a significant Virgin Atlantic base.

Enhancements to the flying programme, which will commence in Summer 2019, include;

· A new route to Los Angeles, operating three times weekly (commences 26th May 2019)
· Services to Las Vegas are doubling, growing from twice a week to four times a week (from 31st March 2019)
· Our Boston service increases to 3 per week (from 25th May 2019)
· Our daily New York and Atlanta services operate principally on a 747, with seat capacity of 455 per flight

Shai Weiss, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Atlantic, commented;

“We’ve always said that Manchester is an important base for Virgin Atlantic and this latest expansion really cements that. We’re delighted to be able to provide the best possible service to the USA by welcoming a new route to Los Angeles and doubling the amount of flights to Las Vegas. By putting our aircraft on our New York, Atlanta, Boston and now Los Angeles flights, we can really maximise connectivity through our partner Delta, allowing even more customers to take advantage of over 200 US connections.”
Julian Carr Aviation Director at Manchester Airport said:

“It’s pleasing to see Virgin Atlantic continuing to grow from Manchester Airport and we are delighted to see the carrier launch a service to Los Angeles.

“The airline’s commitment and growth clearly demonstrates the role we play at connecting the North to key global destinations and the demand to fly direct from Manchester.

“I am sure the extra services and new route will prove incredibly popular with the 22m passengers in our vast catchment area.”

It's LAX...

http://aboutmanchester.co.uk/virgin-atl ... r-airport/

3 times a week from 26th May 2019. No word on aircraft yet. It's another US route where they'll be competing against Thomas Cook who launched it a few years ago.

[mitchja]

I was going to post something similar however I decided against it because someone always says something along the lines of “do you have a reliable source”.

I find it rather offensive because it’s more or less saying I’m not a reliable source. So I thought I won’t bother sharing snippets of information again.

Just taking a step back here for a minute. What you do have to remember is not everyone knows or realises that there actually are VS staff posting on this forum. As a forum, V-Flyer has always left it up to posters if they want to identify themselves as staff or not.

Forums often tend to bring out the 'if there's not a source for that info, it cannot be true' mentality unfortunately, especially in these days of fake news etc.

We do all appreciate snippets like this

Great news about the new VS route and expansion at MAN

Expansion by VS at MAN will always be welcomed and celebrated by me. This is good news for sure.

Hearing SFO has been dropped though which is a real shame. But LAX is welcomed warmly, great to see BOS and LAS growing and solid support on the ATL and JFK routes seeing the 744s is also good news (unless anyone chasing Gs)

Jon

From a North-Midlands person's viewpoint, any expansion at MAN is great as it means I don't have to endure the M25 carpark to get to LHR or LGW. MAN is getting a Clubhouse at some point too as part of the T2 redevelopment works, so it will no longer be the poor relation from an Upper Class / FC Gold point of view.

It's a shame that LAX comes at the expense of SFO - but internal flights between the two are frequent and reasonably priced. I don't mind the 747's flying the routes as the Upper Class cabin in the nose is the most spacious UC cabin Virgin have - the downside is of course that G fares will be harder to come by as only 14 UC seats.

You have to wonder what London Airways (BA) make of VS's expansion at MAN - Virgin seem to have proved that you can fly from airports other than London and make money / make the routes work.

LAS and LAX will be in 330-200s which will Jane had their refurb by then

You have to wonder what London Airways (BA) make of VS's expansion at MAN - Virgin seem to have proved that you can fly from airports other than London and make money / make the routes work.

It won't bother them at all. They are more bothered about Norwegian and the threat from LGW so much so IAG are bidding to buy Norwegian.

Their model is still very much forcing every one to fly via their LHR/LGW hubs

Besides BA is under so much stretch at LGW at the moment having to operate the Monarch slots with their own planes that they are wet leasing other planes to operate their existing routes that they likely don't care about VS!

You have to wonder what London Airways (BA) make of VS's expansion at MAN - Virgin seem to have proved that you can fly from airports other than London and make money / make the routes work.

It won't bother them at all. They are more bothered about Norwegian and the threat from LGW so much so IAG are bidding to buy Norwegian.

Their model is still very much forcing every one to fly via their LHR/LGW hubs

Besides BA is under so much stretch at LGW at the moment having to operate the Monarch slots with their own planes that they are wet leasing other planes to operate their existing routes that they likely don't care about VS!

In addition, I wouldn't read too much into BA Cityflyer operating European short-haul routes from MAN and other regional airports in the summer months. Although good to have a choice, it's one way for them to make use of assets that would otherwise sit idle due to weekend curfews at LCY.

As I live close by to MAN and LPL, it will always be direct flights for me as much as possible unless the prices are ridiculous or the times/days I want to fly are better served via a connection, but even with the latter point I'm flexible given that almost all my travel is for leisure purposes. I'm also fully signed up to the "use it or lose it" theory.

BA has said they might return to long-haul from the regions with the Airbus A321 long range.

Aer Lingus is due to take delivery of the aircraft, so IAG will have a good indication of how it performs.

BA has reinstated a lot of former routes, so never say never.

Although I love San Francisco and am disappointed by the loss of the SFO route, realistically a direct LAX route is far better for us in terms of business, and the increase in LAS flights is good, too. Overall I'm happy but hope that one day it makes sense for VS to offer all three routes from MAN at once. We're really happy they're investing more in MAN. Now can we please have a Clubhouse??

[mitchja]

The problem is though, if VS want to get serious about routes like SFO (or any other route from MAN) for corporate travel, the route needs to be daily and year round.

Seasonal, 2 or 3 flights a week is never going to cut it for corporate travel.

You have to wonder what London Airways (BA) make of VS's expansion at MAN - Virgin seem to have proved that you can fly from airports other than London and make money / make the routes work.

Given VS were loss making last year and will be loss making again this year it is hardly a ringing endorsement that the current strategy is a profitable/successful one.

You have to wonder what London Airways (BA) make of VS's expansion at MAN - Virgin seem to have proved that you can fly from airports other than London and make money / make the routes work.

Given VS were loss making last year and will be loss making again this year it is hardly a ringing endorsement that the current strategy is a profitable/successful one.

Bit extreme to be attributing their losses directly to MAN like that. You or I don’t know how much profit is being made on the MAN network, but if they weren’t profitable I’d have expected VS to have binned those routes by now, especially as the RR 787 engine issues presented a convenient opportunity to make cuts if they so wished.

This is probably an impossible question for anyone to answer, but does anyone know roughly when we'll be able to book the new LAX route? Thanks!

I am delighted with the news that we are getting a direct flight to LAX. MAN is going from strength of strength,
100% agree with James's point about the route frequency and seasonality of the flights, We just need that Clubhouse don't we that would be the answer to all our problems . The reality is MAN is going to be a very big source of growth for Virgin probably more so than LHR over the next 10 years. Virgin are constantly analysing connecting passengers feeds from the ATL & JFK flights to determine future destinations. With American, United and Thomas Cook all closing long haul routes out of MAN Virgin are winning the market. In regard to the comment about Virgin's profitability 4 different aircraft types in a fleet of less than 50 planes. Thats what's wrong all those spare parts add up plus pilot training & cabin crew training. Delta will make Virgin double down on the Airbus A350 post 2020 especially with the recent events of the 787.

Surely a matter of time now before a Clubhouse is announced in the MAN terminal extension. It's crazy to have a long haul programme of this size and not offer the flagship lounge that VS is famous for...

This is probably an impossible question for anyone to answer, but does anyone know roughly when we'll be able to book the new LAX route? Thanks!

Bookings are now open for the first flight. It seems the normal 11 months max before flight date is being applied here.

SFO bookings aren't open, which would add to the rumours that MAN-SFO is being dropped.

Surely a matter of time now before a Clubhouse is announced in the MAN terminal extension. It's crazy to have a long haul programme of this size and not offer the flagship lounge that VS is famous for...

From what I have heard, the MAN Clubhouse is all but signed-up with MAG (Manchester Airports Group). We will have to wait a few years though as the Terminal 2 Transformation Programme is currently building the new Pier 1 on the West end of T2 - this will open next year. The next new Pier to be built will be Pier 3, at the Eastern end of T2 - and this is the Pier with the extra level on top of departures level for the Airline lounges.

I've not seen a firm date for the opening of Pier 3 - but it looks like Pier 1 will have been a two year build (or thereabouts) when it opens, so we're probably going to have to wait until 2021-ish for a Clubhouse (based on current plans).

All these lovely new routes but no MAN/TPA yes I know I can go via ATL but most of us just like to get down to the gulf coast fast. I really thought we would get maybe only summer time flights to try it out. I don't want to have to go via MCO. No Gatwick is to far away, and will not go with the dark side. We who fly from Manchester and above do not all go to see the mouse, sun sea surf appeal much more.

I was told last week the MAN Clubhouse (loved typing that!) should open in Spring 2020.

Subject to any construction delays that arise between now and then of course.

Jon

I was told last week the MAN Clubhouse (loved typing that!) should open in Spring 2020.

Subject to any construction delays that arise between now and then of course.

Jon

OMG!! Hope to see lots of northerners there

Such a shame about the loss of the SFO route, it was great last September and such a boon to be able to start the road trip from there instead of LA

I was told last week the MAN Clubhouse (loved typing that!) should open in Spring 2020.

Amazing news, I really, really hope so...