NEWS
Virgin Atlantic cabin crew celebrate the launch of flights from Heathrow to Cancun, Mexico, last week
SPECIAL REPORT
Virgin aims higher V
Carrier plans more Premium and Upper Class seats as Cancun service starts. By Ben Ireland He added: “A big part of the UK
irgin Atlantic is to roll out an increasing number of Premium and Upper Class seats
over the next five years as it seeks to cater for a growing demand for premium leisure travel. Speaking ahead of the airline’s
inaugural flight to Cancun from Heathrow, chief commercial officer Juha Jarvinen told Travel Weekly agents will be able to sell more seats in the higher-yield cabins. He said the carrier will see a 30%
increase in the number of seats across Premium and Upper Class cabins between now and 2030 as part of a retrofit of its Boeing 787 aircraft and the delivery of 11 Airbus 330neos. “Because of that shift, we will
increasingly focus on the premium leisure segment,” said Jarvinen. “That automatically means we will be increasingly focused on customer segments who are keen to fly in Premium and Upper.”
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travel trade is focusing increasingly on this segment, especially since the pandemic. We’ve seen that people are willing to save in other areas so they have disposable income to treat themselves when they go on holiday. “And the way we price our tickets
means you can combine – so you can fly one way in Economy and fly back in Premium or Upper. Flexibility is key.”
Heathrow-Cancun launch Virgin Atlantic relaunched non-stop flights to Cancun on October 19, with three services a week on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. It is the only direct route from Heathrow to Cancun. When the airline last served Cancun, in 2019, it operated from Gatwick. Jarvinen said the relaunch of
direct Cancun flights fitted with the move towards serving the premium leisure segment, with a number of high-end hotels opening in the region
Juha Jarvinen
in recent years, including in Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen and Tulum. He said Mexico had “re-emerged”
from the pandemic as an “exciting destination”, in part because it had stayed open for longer periods while other countries were locked down. “That’s why we believe it’s the right time to go back,” he said. As well as the beaches of Cancun,
the area offers access to Mayan ruins with day trips available to the parks of Xcaret and Xel-Há as well as Chichen Itza, the Unesco World Heritage
Site which is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. “As such a diverse destination, Mexico offers a lot of options to build different types of packages for our travel trade partners,” said Jarvinen.
Load factor target The route is part of a joint venture with Delta and Air France-KLM, which wasn’t the case when Virgin operated to Cancun from Gatwick. The route will primarily serve
point-to-point travellers, but also opens up connections to the rest of Mexico and South America through SkyTeam partner Aeromexico and a codeshare with Latam. Jarvinen said this will help
increase load factors, which he hopes to be above an 80% target, although he accepts loads can be “a bit lighter” in the first season after launch. He anticipates similar booking patterns to the Caribbean, which has seen a surge in late bookings in recent years.
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PICTURE: Adam Gerrard
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