Virgin Atlantic Airways has planned three extra routes for its winter 2015 schedule, with daily flight offerings from London Heathrow – Dubai, Johannesburg, and Shanghai Pu Dong, using its Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
The airline launched its first 787-9 just last month on its ‘Old England to New England’ route between London and Boston. The six-time weekly route was served by the airline’s A330 and A340s, but was replaced by the ‘Birthday Girl’ to celebrate the airline’s 30th birthday.
Washington, Newark and New York are to be added to the Virgin Atlantic 787-9 schedule in December, January and February respectively.
Virgin Atlantic has 15 787-9s on order with options on ordering another eight and purchase rights on a further 20 aircraft, and it is the first European operator of the new larger variant of the Dreamliner.
The 787-9 will make up 40 percent of Virgin Atlantic’s fleet by 2017, and the aircraft will benefit Virgin Atlantic’s passengers on long-haul routes, with a 60 percent smaller noise footprint in comparison to aircraft of a comparable size.
Rob Bissett, network planning manager network & alliances, Virgin Atlantic Airways, spoke to THE HUB at the World Routes event in Chicago this year, and told us that the 787 is a game changer for Virgin’s network, particularly for longer routes.
You can read the full interview here
“These are where we really get the biggest benefits of the fuel efficiency so it was always a case of trying to get them on to those routes as quickly as possible,” he said.
Rob Bissett explained how the performance levels delivered by the 787-9 allow Virgin to look at expansion in a new light. “The fuel efficiency makes previous marginal opportunities more compelling and also removes any range limitations that we might have with similar size aircraft in the fleet,” he added.
The new aircraft type has allowed the English carrier to bring a new product and service to its markets. Travellers experience a quieter cabin, lower cabin altitude, and larger windows, as well as Wi-Fi connectivity across the entire 787-9 fleet.
The airline is already considering its next move, with discussions about adding the 787-10 to the fleet in a few years time.
The 787-10 certainly gives us some options to evaluate in the future and it will of course form part of our future fleet evaluations. However, at this stage we’re focussed on getting the 787-9s successfully on to the Virgin network," Rob Bissett said.
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