[ad_1]
British carrier Virgin Atlantic is aiming for a larger share of the outbound passenger market in India as it plans to offer over half a million seats to travellers annually between UK & India from 2024. Starting early next year, the airline will start flying daily on the Bengaluru – London route and hopes to increase its customer base in the country.
Signalling its commitment to India, Virgin Atlantic will start new direct flights to London’s Heathrow airport to Bengaluru from March 31, 2024, which will be its fourth daily service to India and first to the Silicon Valley of India. The airline currently operates double daily services from Delhi and a daily flight from Mumbai. Since 2019, Virgin Atlantic has increased its capacity to India by 250 per cent, making it the airline’s largest area of growth outside the US.
In an interaction with ETTravelWorld, Alex McEwan, Country Manager – South Asia, Virgin Atlantic, said they expect passenger demand to continue to be buoyant in 2023. He also informed that last year was the airline’s biggest in terms of business expansion.
“2022 was our biggest ever year in India, as we expanded our number of daily flights to three, with the launch of a double daily Delhi service to London Heathrow alongside our daily Mumbai to London service. Across the business as a whole, we were pleased to have successfully restarted all of the destinations in the USA that we had flown to before Covid. This offers our Indian customers a fantastic choice of destinations to fly to when connecting with us over London Heathrow,” McEwan added.
Strong growth from India
As a large volume of travellers continues to show a strong desire for travel post-Covid, McEwan forecasted strong economic growth from India. “This gives us the confidence to continue to invest and grow in India, and next year we will offer over half a million seats annually between UK and India. We can see that Indian airlines are also committed to growing further with significant fleet orders; this will continue to stimulate demand for travel and propel India to be the third-largest aviation market within the next few years,” he said.
In 2022, Virgin Atlantic reported total revenue of GBP 2.9 billion, recovering to 98 per cent of 2019’s revenues and an underlying EBITDA of GBP 310 million. 2023 represents a year of delivery, the second year of the airline’s four-year plan. In 2023, underlying EBITDA is expected to increase to a record level for Virgin Atlantic.
The move comes amidst the approval of the new Goa airport to operate international flights. On July 12, the central government issued a Gazette notification notifying the designation of the Mopa airport as an authorised immigration checkpoint for entry into and exit from India with valid documents for all class of passengers.
Expansion & partnerships
In terms of fleet, Virgin Atlantic is in the process of a multi-billion-dollar fleet transformation. “We will be taking the delivery of 12x A330neos over the next five years. They will become an integral part of our fleet, delivering excellent sustainability performance, and helping us towards our target of achieving net zero by 2050,” informed McEwan.
This year, the airline launched a codeshare partnership with IndiGo, India’s largest airline, which will offer connections to 34 destinations within India. Earlier in March, the British Carrier also joined the SkyTeam alliance of airlines.
“This offers us partnership opportunities worldwide and allows our passengers to connect across 1,000 global destinations in over 170 countries,” stated McEwan on the development.
Growing demand for premium leisure
Talking about strong recovery across all customer segments, the airline’s Country Manager for South Asia said the rising demand for premium leisure segments has helped them to support revenue performances.
“Customers want to treat themselves and are prioritising high-end travel experiences over other purchases. We can see clearly that the trend for remote working is here to stay; even with Covid restrictions being eased, many workplaces have embraced a hybrid office culture. We continue to see a blurring of business and leisure travel, with people extending their business trips for a few days to enjoy some leisure time at their destination,” he explained.
Sustainability efforts
Sharing thoughts on Virgin Atlantic’s sustainability efforts to achieve more cleaner, greener sky, McEwan said the airline operates one of the youngest and cleanest fleets in the sky, with an average aircraft age of just under seven years and 68 per cent of its aircraft being ‘next generation’.
“This increases to 100 per cent ‘next generation’ by the beginning of 2027. In the last decade, we have reduced our absolute carbon emissions by 35 per cent and are committed to making further reductions towards the net zero goal in 2050. As an airline founded on and committed to innovation, we’re proud to be the first airline to operate a flight across the Atlantic which is fuelled 100 per cent by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF),” he concluded.
The company serves around 813 large corporates and over 58,000 SMEs and has 29,000 registered travel agents on its platform. In an exclusive conversation with ETTravelWorld, Sabina Chopra, COO, Corporate Travel and Head Industry Relations, Yatra.com said that Yatra is aiming to double its current corporate travel business in the next five years. Excerpts from the interview…
[ad_2]
Source link
