Virgin Atlantic buys 24 Heathrow slots from KLM, enough for two new routes

When Rhys returned from his Virgin Atlantic A330neo inaugural trip to Tampa, he came back with rumours of an aggressive route expansion.

We honestly have no idea what is planned, but it is worth mentioning that:

• Virgin Atlantic had planned to launch Sao Paulo before the pandemic, and presumably the rationale for that route still exists

• there have been reports in the Korean press that the airline is planning flights to Seoul – this appears more believable now that Virgin Atlantic is joining SkyTeam and could partner with Korean

One block to expansion would be Heathrow landing and take-off slots, assuming that there are no plans to return to London Gatwick.

However, filings at Airport Coordination – which manages Heathrow slot trades – show that Virgin Atlantic has purchased 12 Heathrow slot pairs from its transatlantic joint venture partner KLM. These cover the Summer season, from April to October.

This would be enough to launch two new routes, assuming 2 x 6 day services or 1 x 7 days and 1 x 5 days. Whilst the new A330neo fleet is meant to replace the existing A330 fleet, there is presumably some flexibility in when the latter are pensioned off.

Rhys could have a busy year next year with all of these route launches ….

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As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 18,000 Virgin Points and the free card has a bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points):

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