St. Lucia dropped from June, 9 2020

Seems to be a row over subsidies, cant see VS giving this route up, although they appear to be expecting money from St. Lucia

https://stluciatimes.com/virgin-atlanti ... stalemate/

I guess it's at the "who blinks first" stage still, but a public announcement is probably close to the "final roll of the dice"?

It's potentially a bigger change given that the St Lucia flights are also currently the VS routes to GND and TAB as well …. so some other route changes pushing, say, one route to an ANU stopover and the other to a BGI stopover (or giving up those islands too from the VS network and just selling onward flights from ANU or BGI with Liat - an issue for status, PE and UC customers with more than one hold bag).

Wow. Surely this would have a huge impact on Virgin Holidays business/profits? It must be one heck of a big subsidy if they are prepared to gift this business to BA.

Wow. Surely this would have a huge impact on Virgin Holidays business/profits? It must be one heck of a big subsidy if they are prepared to gift this business to BA.

I'd argue that if the profits were big enough to make it worthwhile as it stands then VS would be happy to continue operating the route without subsidies from the local government. There's two sides to every story, but if it is down to subsidy, then without knowing whether BA also rely on subsidies or not, it could be a case of the local government questioning the logic of subsidising one airline (in particular a foreign airline in St Lucia's eyes) to compete with others operating the same route.

I guess it's at the "who blinks first" stage still, but a public announcement is probably close to the "final roll of the dice"?

The amount of notice given that VS are pulling out (over 10 months) might also indicate the door is open to a solution being found to enable the flights to continue, though I note the DXB route was axed with 9 months notice. That said, I expect any continuation of the route to be announced quickly before resources are re-allocated elsewhere.

I have flown to St Lucia eight times over the last four years, seven times destination St Lucia and once on to Grenada.
Of those 16 long haul flights I think the Airbus, of whichever variety, was full on two occasions. On our November trips the planes have usually been half full at best.
It is perhaps not such a profitable route.
And if the route is dropped and VS drops folks in Antigua and/or Barbados for onward travel to Tobago/St Lucia/Grenada with the unreliable Liat then I shall be flying BA.

the St Lucian side of the story

This is very surprising for a number of reasons. I've also flown the route to St. Lucia as well as onto Grenada a handful of times. My main surprise is that a route to St Lucia relies on subsidies. The Caribbean more broadly is a popular tourist destination with peak flows at Easter, Summer and Christmas. Beyond this St Lucia is one of the most popular destinations in the region alongside Barbados and Jamaica. I definitely don't expect either of those routes to rely on subsidies.

As mentioned above this will have a massive impact on Virgin Holidays so I struggle to believe a resolution won't be found. Any belief that flying passengers via another island and connecting on LIAT is pretty laughable IMO, especially to get to a mainstream island like St Lucia which is easily accessible directly. (PAX are understandably more willing to put up with connecting on LIAT on such a short hop for the more far flung islands like St Barts.

Ultimately with tourism such a key part of the economies of the caribbean islands I can't see the St Lucian tourist board sitting and watching VS (one of the 2 key players in the region) to slip away. Let the game of chicken commence!

i think BA will just up its number of flights

We flew into St Lucia last August, the aircraft from LGW was rammed and I was under the impression that a lot of the passengers were West Indian families visiting England, or West Indians living in London, going back to visit the folks. It didnt seem a lot of holiday makers for VH. I recall only about 50 passengers got off, before the a/c continued to Grenada.

We thought St Lucia was lovely, but hotels were at the other end of the island.

We did a local transfer on Liat to Barbados which was fine, through the regional airport, much closer to the hotels.

I would have thought there was enough business on St Lucia for VS to operate as a double drop flight, apart from BA, there are limited options for the locals to get to Europe, its very much a 2 way service.

Raffles reporting this today

https://www.headforpoints.com/2019/07/2 ... ng-havana/

Interesting to see Havana will do a Vegas and switch from Gatwick to Heathrow. WIth that and the supposed ending of St Lucia LGW will go down to just 6 destinations!

[mitchja]

Interesting to see Havana will do a Vegas and switch from Gatwick to Heathrow. WIth that and the supposed ending of St Lucia LGW will go down to just 6 destinations!

yes, that brings LGW to less than MAN which currently has 7 destinations (all-be it some of which are seasonal)

though add in JFK and BOS to start from LGW next year which are now rumoured to be in VS metal

though add in JFK and BOS to start from LGW next year which are now rumoured to be in VS metal

Could the cancellation of UVF and moving HAV to LHR be where the a/c are coming from to operate LGW-JFK/BOS if the rumour is true?

Excellent news the Havana is changing to LHR! And an aircraft change too

I do wonder how strong a choice the JFK/BOS from LGW is given the fierce competition between BA and Norwegian already with BA revealing the difficulty closing routes such as Ft Lauderdale and also previously retreating from JFK before their most recent attempt to return.

https://www.breakingtravelnews.com/news ... cia-route/?

BA swoops in like a knight in shining armour.