No London Gatwick return for Virgin Atlantic as US capacity increases.

There will be no London Gatwick return from Virgin Atlantic, at least for the next two years the airline confirmed on Wednesday.

Virgin pulled out completely of the Sussex airport near the start of the pandemic to focus its operations on London Heathrow.  Now as the airline increases capacity on US routes as part of its development with major shareholder Delta, Virgin's CEO Shai Weiss says a Gatwick restart is off the table at least until the end of 2023. 

“We would like to think there is an opportunity for Gatwick, but it is not this year,” Weiss, who joined Virgin Atlantic as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in July 2014 from Virgin Management Ltd, said during a press conference.

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“Heathrow is where our business hub is and this is where people want to fly and where you connect,” he said whilst also confirming Virgin had retained its slots at Gatwick.

Virgin Atlantic has recently been busy returning to an almost full pre-pandemic schedule from Heathrow as well as increasing capacity to the U.S.  From April the airline will add frequencies and reintroduce services to key US gateways, including a third daily service to Los Angeles will commence, serving the Californian city more than any other airline.  

Virgin Atlantic will operate Orlando flights from its four UK gateways of Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast, resulting in more flights from the UK to the theme park capital of the world than any other carrier.  The airline has already added services to Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Washington and Atlanta.  In addition, Virgin Atlantic also recently announced it would begin a service to Austin, Texas from 25th May. 

Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Atlantic, commented, “Following the relaxation of travel restrictions, we’ve seen demand increase to many of our global destinations, but particularly to our heartland in the USA. Our customers can’t wait to return."

Whilst ruling out an imminent Gatwick return to concentrating on Heathrow for its London operations, Weiss complained bitterly about the 56% increase in charges at Heathrow, saying it was “egregious” and warned passengers would fly via major hubs in Europe, such as Paris or Amsterdam.  "The 56% increase the CAA has given Heathrow is way, way too high. It’s unwarranted. The charges are egregious. The CAA’s job is to protect consumers.  - The decision to delay setting the charges till 2027 until after the summer as right. We’re making our case on behalf of consumers. We’ve not given up."

The boss of U.S. mega-carrier and Virgin's main shareholder, Delta agreed: “Heathrow is a very expensive airport.”  Ed Bastian added, “We’re an industry coming off a very difficult time. Charges seen as extreme are not helpful. Customers have choices. -  Are Heathrow’s charges deterring people from coming to London? Potentially.”

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