Virgin Atlantic Airways will begin new service to Los Angeles and boost frequencies on other routes to the USA from Manchester next year.
The carrier will begin three-times weekly service between Manchester and Los Angeles on 22 May 2019, it says today. It will add one weekly flight to Boston for a total of three per week the same day, and double frequency to Las Vegas to four-times weekly from 31 March 2019.
The new flights will be flown by 287-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft, Virgin Atlantic says.
In addition to the new flights, the carrier will shift the majority of its flights to Atlanta and New York John F Kennedy from Manchester to 455-seat Boeing 747-400s from A330-200s in 2019. Both US airports are major hubs for Virgin Atlantic joint venture and equity partner Delta Air Lines.
“We’ve always said that Manchester is an important base for Virgin Atlantic and this latest expansion really cements that," says Shai Weiss, chief commercial officer of Virgin Atlantic, in a statement. "By putting our aircraft on our New York, Atlanta, Boston and now Los Angeles flights, we can really maximise connectivity through our partner Delta."
In addition to the connectivity with Delta, the new flights will connect with 14 destinations in Europe and the UK served by Virgin Atlantic codeshare partner FlyBe via Manchester.
Virgin Atlantic is the largest to the USA from Manchester, with flights to Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, New York JFK, Orlando and San Francisco this month, FlightGlobal schedules show. American Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Thomas Cook and United Airlines also fly between Manchester and the USA.
The airline added service to Boston and San Francisco from Manchester in 2017.
Virgin Atlantic will compete with Thomas Cook on the Manchester-Los Angeles route, schedules show.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
