Virgin Atlantic to increase capacity on transatlantic routes

Virgin Atlantic Airways has announced it will be increasing capacity on transatlantic routes from 2018. The airline in a statement said that it will be adding about 40,000 seats on flights from Manchester to Atlanta and New York. Both these routes are mostly operated with the help of a Boeing 747 aircraft. However, some select services are also served with an Airbus A330 aircraft.

Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines has also announced expanding its transatlantic routes with capacity increase from next year. The airline will be launching Delta Once cabin on routes operated from London Heathrow. Media reports said that Delta Air Lines will be deploying Airbus A330 aircraft to conduct flights from London Heathrow to New York JFK, Detroit and Atlanta. The airline is presently conducting flights on these routes with Boeing aircraft, but is set to increase the number of seats with the new Airbus A330 aircraft. The Delta One cabin being launched on transatlantic routes will be offering 34 fully flat seats.

According to the reports, both Virgin Atlantic Airways and Delta Air Lines have jointly announced that they will be optimizing their flight schedule between London Heathrow and New York JFK. The optimization will result in Virgin Atlantic Airways taking over the operations of one of Delta Air Lines’ services. This also means that Virgin Atlantic Airways will be operating six flights daily, while Delta Air Lines will be conducting twice daily service.

Shai Weiss, Chief Commercial Officer of Virgin Atlantic Airways, while commenting on the new changes, said, “It is a matter of great pride and happiness that Delta Air Lines is a joint venture partner of Virgin Atlantic Airways. This has greatly helped both the airlines to jointly create an unmatched service for the customers traveling between the United States and the UK. We treasure this valuable joint venture and want to say that ours is the only partnership in which Wi-Fi is being offered on each transatlantic flight, in addition to fully flat beds with direct aisle access in business class cabins. Both Virgin Atlantic Airways and Delta Air Lines will be offering a total of 37 nonstop flights daily during the peak summer 2018 schedule between the US and UK, of which 26 flights will be from London Heathrow and 11 flights will be from Manchester.”