New route to Riyadh & a return to Ghana

https://corporate.virginatlantic.com/gb ... -2025.html

Virgin Atlantic has announced new flying from London Heathrow, adding two new destinations of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Accra, Ghana to its network for summer 2025.

Flights to Riyadh will operate daily on the airline’s state of the art A330neo, the newest aircraft in Virgin Atlantic’s fleet, with the first flight departing London Heathrow on 30 March 2025.

Virgin Atlantic will return to Ghana for the first time since 2013, with daily flights to Kotoka International Airport in the nation’s capital, Accra, from May 2025.

Interesting that Accra is retuning. From memory, I think the slot times at Heathrow were not particularly competitive when it previously operated.

Interesting choice of Riyadh. Purely our of interest, what are the rules on serving alcohol in Saudi airspace & can airlines upload catering carts containing alcohol in Saudi?

I scratched my head when I saw Riyadh, though I remembered that Saudia are also in SkyTeam, so I wonder if there’s some synergy/codesharing going on that was a factor in adding it to the network?

I guess this doesn’t bode well for the future of the TLV route depending on timings and resources needed, though I can understand why VS are looking elsewhere given current events.

As for Accra, not sure how true it was but I recall reading they had to fly planes fully loaded with fuel to get to Accra and back due to the high costs of fuel downroute at the time, though I do recall the uncompetitive/different flight times compared to BA, KLM, etc.

Interesting choice of Riyadh. Purely our of interest, what are the rules on serving alcohol in Saudi airspace & can airlines upload catering carts containing alcohol in Saudi?

I have flown this route with BA, no alcohol in Saudi airspace both ways.

Be prepared for the rush to the toilets in the last hour or so of the inbound to Riyadh as the locals change out of their western attire...

Sometimes I wonder what the heck VS is doing when it comes to route planning.

Taking odds on these being stillborns or canned within 12 months if they even launch?

Sometimes I wonder what the heck VS is doing when it comes to route planning.

Taking odds on these being stillborns or canned within 12 months if they even launch?

In the case of Riyadh, there was some sort of ceremony lately involving Shai Weiss and VS being granted a licence to operate. I doubt they would go to that effort if they were on the fence, though obviously forward bookings and whether it makes money will (rightly) dictate the route’s future.

I also think the SkyTeam connection with Saudia will give this route more of a fighting chance than some of the other routes stillborn/cut recently.

I’m surprised we didn’t get the Brazil route or more routes from MAN. VS are a bit random these days the closed Russian airspace has created a problem on flights to Asia. VS are chasing profitability and will cut routes that are not working for them Austin was a prime example of that. VS are also trying to up connections now they have only one London base.

Another update for the new Riyadh route. Shai Weiss has posted on Instagram a photograph of him signing a strategic partnership agreement with Tony Douglas, CEO of the newly-founded Riyadh Air which the Saudi’s have set up to be effectively the second airline of Saudi Arabia.

Going by what’s been announced, I get the impression that Riyadh Air will soon be competing with other Middle Eastern carriers for the millions of connecting traffic they carry, as well as serving Saudi Arabia.

Skyft confirms this is a result of the Delta agreement with Riyadh Air, and also points out Virgin suspending the gender neutral policy for crew operating on the route.

https://skift.com/2024/09/03/virgin-atl ... udi-route/