Virgin Atlantic celebrates 25 years of flying in India

Virgin Atlantic celebrates 25 years of flying in India Virgin Atlantic celebrates 25 years of flying to India and its ongoing commitment to growth in the region. Since first launching flights between London Heathrow and Delhi in July 2000, India is now the airline’s third largest market and has grown from zero to one million seats each year, with five flights daily from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Growth of 350% since 2019.

Alongside options for customers, the increase in flying is also a huge boost for cargo operations with additional capacity to support the movement of goods from the fashion, pharmaceuticals and tech sectors. With five daily services, Virgin Atlantic Cargo offers over 53.4 million kg of space to and from India, a 356% increase in capacity versus 2019.

Shai Weiss, CEO and Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Virgin Atlantic marked the occasion this morning, alongside local crew in front of India Gate.

Virgin Atlantic’s services offer seamless connectivity and a premium long-haul experience onboard one of the airline’s latest products, the Airbus A350, with 40% of Indian customers choosing to connect via London Heathrow to destinations throughout North America, including the airline’s new service to Toronto, as well as Seattle, San Francisco and New York JFK. In addition, Virgin Atlantic’s partnership with IndiGo, India’s largest airline, offers connections to 34 destinations across India including Varanasi, Amritsar, Srinagar, Goa and Lucknow. Since the launch of the partnership in September 2023, the airlines have connected more than 200,000 customers across codeshare services.

Virgin Atlantic continues to invest in its onboard experience for Indian customers. A recent recruitment of Indian based crew ensures that each flight to India will now average three Indian crew on every flight speaking Hindi and local dialects – double that of 2024. UK based cabin crew have also undergone cultural training to better understand and meet the needs of our Indian customers. A variety of new dishes that reflect the rich culinary heritage of India including vegetable korma with almond basmati, saag masala and naan, masala dosa, medu wada, spinach uttapam, sambhar and curry leaf chutney are now available onboard and customers can enjoy a selection of Indian movies, TV series and Bollywood albums on the inflight entertainment.

Shivani Singh Deo, India Country Manager, Virgin Atlantic said, “We could not be prouder of all Virgin Atlantic has achieved in our 25 years of flying to India, growing our offering from zero to one million seats and expanding from Delhi to Mumbai and Bengaluru. Our premium service offers a brilliantly different experience to the market, offering seamless connections to Canada, USA and beyond via London Heathrow, as well as throughout India by leveraging the power of our commercial cooperation with IndiGo. We look forward to welcoming many more customers over the next 25 years, surprising and delighting them with our onboard service with extra Indian touches, delivered by our amazing crew.”

Virgin Atlantic offers five flights a day to London Heathrow – one daily to Bengaluru, and twice daily to both Mumbai and Delhi. For those anticipating their next trip away, visit https://www.virginatlantic.com/en-IN or follow the airline on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.