Virgin Atlantic has decided to withdraw its flight service from
Sydney. At present the airline operates London - Sydney route via Hong
Kong on a daily basis using A340-600 aircraft. The airline will continue
its London to Hong Kong leg but has however decided to discontinue its
forward journey from Hong Kong to Sydney.
Growing costs and weakening of Australian dollar have been the prime
reasons due to which the route has become less lucrative and now the
airline is forced to terminate the route. Virgin Atlantic CEO, Craig
Kreeger is a statement said, this is difficult times for the airline,
and it is very important that they operate only the profitable routes in
order to meet their expenses and overall financial goals. He further
said that the airline staff tried its best but the external economic
environs, poor usage, increasing overheads and rising costs impacted the
profitability.
Virgin Atlantic’s last Hong to Sydney flight will operate on May 4,
2014 and the last leg of this flight will depart the following day from
Sydney to London. With this the Virgin will no longer be flying to
Australia any more. This will leave only Qantas and British Airways
offering routes between Australia and Europe.