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Virgin Atlantic was excited to announce that it will join the SkyTeam alliance in 2023 earlier today but what it hasn’t come out and told its flyers is that it won’t be launching its new A330-900neo aircraft on the originally published schedule – the inaugural flight has been pushed back by a couple of weeks.
Earlier this summer, Virgin Atlantic caused quite a bit of excitement as it unveiled the new Upper Class suites that will debut on its A330-900neo aircraft but for anyone currently looking forward to trying this product out, will have to wait a little longer than anticipated.
Originally, Virgin was set to launch the A330-900neo on its Heathrow – Boston route on 12 October but this has now been quietly pushed back to 27 October.
Be aware that the A330-900neo will not operate to/from Boston every day so if you’re booking this route in the hope of trying out the new cabins keep these are the dates/days you should focus on:
- 30 October
- 31 October
- 2 November
- 4 November
- 6 November
- 6x week (excluding Tuesdays) from 7 November until the end of the winter season.
Virgin Atlantic will also use the new aircraft to launch its new route between Heathrow and Tampa on 2 November 2022 (a day earlier than previously announced).
Initially, this route will operate between 5x and 6x/week with the A330-900neo operating most (but not all) flights.
As of 27 November, this route will be operated daily on the following schedule…
VS129 LHR 13:25 – 18:35 TPA (Daily)
VS130 TPA 20:50 – 10:15+1 day LHR (Daily)
…and an A330-900neo is currently scheduled to operate all the flights.
Finally, as far as this year’s aircraft launches go, you’ll now find the Virgin Atlantic A330-900neo appearing, sporadically at first, on the Heathrow – Miami route from 13 November.
Virgin operates two daily flights on this route and the A330-900 is set to operate the later of the two departures:
VS5 LHR 09:40 – 14:30 MIA (Daily)
VS6 MIA 19:40 – 09:20+1 day LHR (Daily)
As well as appearing on 13 November, the A330-900neo is currently scheduled to operate on 15, 17, 24, and 26 November as well as on 1 December before appearing every day from 5 December onwards.
Note: Schedules are prone to sudden changes so what you see above is not set in stone and should not be relied upon to make bookings.
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic has pushed back the introduction into service of its new A330-900neo aircraft on which it will debut its new Upper Class cabin. As things stand, the new aircraft is now set to be introduced to Virgin’s regular schedule on 27 October when it operates as VS11 between London Heathrow and Boston. Between then and the end of the year Virgin’s new A330 aircraft will also appear on its routes to Tampa and Miami.
[HT: Ishrion Aviation]
I hope they don’t push it back too much further – I’m scheduled to fly on the A330-900neo from BOS to LHR on 12/12. Want to compare it with the Delta A330-200 that I will be on for the return flight.