Virgin Atlantic confirmed that it will postpone its arrival in South America to the summer of 2025 with flights to Sao Paulo, Brazil.
This is the second time the company has taken a similar measure. The first was in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, so the market was not surprised by this move, quite the contrary to what is happening now, when it had announced that it would start flying to Sao Paulo in May 2024.
Our associated media in Brazil, Aeroin, discovered the news when they found the following message on the Virgin Atlantic website:
In response to an inquiry from Aviacionline, Virgin Atlantic sent us a statement in which Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer of Virgin Atlantic, said «wWe regularly review our network to ensure it’s as strong and efficient as possible. Following a review of our upcoming flying programme for 2024, we will be moving the start of our highly anticipated Sao Paulo services to 2025».
The executive assured that they remain «committed to flying to Brazil and look forward to welcoming our business and leisure travellers onboard» since Sao Paulo is «gateway to South America and signifies an incredibly exciting opportunity for us».
Passengers affected by this measure will be contacted by Virgin Atlantic‘s customer service to offer them rescheduling options or a full refund.
Virgin Atlantic was going to operate a daily flight between London-Heathrow and Sao Paulo/Guarulhos starting May 13, 2024, with Boeing 797-9 aircraft with a capacity for 258 passengers in three classes.
With Guarulhos being one of the main hubs of LATAM, Virgin Atlantic’s codeshare partner, connections to more than 50 destinations in Brazil and the rest of South America were going to be offered.
According to data obtained by Aviacionline through the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), 450,794 passengers were transported in 2019 between London and Sao Paulo. Currently, the airlines operating in this segment are British Airways, which offers a daily service on Airbus A350-1000, and LATAM Airlines, which provides daily flights operated on Boeing 777-300ER.
