V-Flyer

I have heard a rumour of 2 time weekly? Any news on this?

Originally posted by toledoashley
I have heard a rumour of 2 time weekly? Any news on this?

OK now my heart is palpitating ... UC to Mauritius then 10 days at Le St Gerain, my most favourite hotel in the world. This is the stuff of fairies with three wishes! Air Mauritius is not so good and BA have a near monopoly on comfort to that beautiful island. Please someone at Virgin HQ tell me there's some truth in this, please

Tole- do you have a source of this rumour???

Maybe some charter services this winter??

Im in the travel trade - it has been in the papers and a close friend confirmed it to me.

Any ideas on when? From Where?

Next March from Gatwick

Originally posted by toledoashley
Next March from Gatwick

Can you supply us with a reference or anything?

MRU would be fab if its true [y]

Thanks,
Sarah

Start saving the wine was about £10 a glass and it was chateau turpentine, about 12 years ago:D.

Hey, I have just been speaking to Virgin Holidays staff onboard a flight to New York...get them slightly drunk and they tell you lots! Mauritius is due to go either weekly or twice weekly from NOV `07. Personally a nice weekily flight with a 7 night layover for the crew...sounds like heaven! [y]

Originally posted by Gpik
Hey, I have just been speaking to Virgin Holidays staff onboard a flight to New York...get them slightly drunk and they tell you lots! Mauritius is due to go either weekly or twice weekly from NOV `07. Personally a nice weekily flight with a 7 night layover for the crew...sounds like heaven! [y]

I'd imagine it would be 'cheaper' to return the crew on BA or Air M ... though highly desirable if not! What's the usual score on weekly flights like LGW-GND with crew changes?

Heard a similar rumour myself, apparently the toss up was between MRU, SEZ and MLE and all three were investigated as potential options. Will certainly be looking into a trip there as its been on my 'must visit' list for time!

I'd imagine the crew could get shifted to some of the JNB return flights if MRU does go live.

Thanks,
Sarah

Virgin to MRU would be fab[^] My favourite place[y] Lets hope there's some truth in the rumours.

One thought - we've heard a lot recently about how VS is going after business passengers and high margin fares, yet many of the recent announcements have been holiday routes (GLA-MCO, this one, for example). With the exception of Brazil perhaps and the reinstated ORD to come ... does it make sense to use aircraft where the premium cabins may be smaller or not filled? Mind you, there are plenty of people prepared to pay for buiness to Mauritius ...

Just mulling really

I actually find Air Mauritius not that bad[:I]

What about Reunion - VS would have a monopoly on flight from the UK then. Actually it's a pretty untapped market other than by the french although it's still good[y]

VS.

We crew do get long stopovers. CPT upto 4 nights, MBJ when we start we will get 5 nights, 4 night UVF, we used to get 4 night PVG and DEL.

They cant fly us back incase they cant get a crew back there for some reason then they would have customers stuck there.

The cost of tickets for us esp in peak season.

The crew union would not allow it to happen we dont do this job to fly there and then come back if we wanted to do that we could work for My Travel or some other charter airline.

As far as the UC cabin goes I think Virgin would have the reverse issue with a LGW plane! A lot of the people flying to Mauritius or the Maldives are paying a lot of money to stay at ultra exotic places and would simply not fly out in Economy, or Premium for that matter! I know with BA's flights to Mauritius Business is usually full, while Economy is not! Also it in one of the few routes they are not considering removing First as it sells so well!

Just my thoughts, who would want to pay £5000-£10000 for 2 weeks at a great resort and then spend 10 hours in economy, to save a grand!

Just my thoughts on it!! My vote goes to the Maldives, with BA already serving Mauritius why not go somewhere we can't get to direct with scheduled flights!

This rumour has been round ages.

It'd definately be a Gatwick flight if it did happen.

Originally posted by michaeljtodd
As far as the UC cabin goes I think Virgin would have the reverse issue with a LGW plane!

Just my thoughts on it!! My vote goes to the Maldives, with BA already serving Mauritius why not go somewhere we can't get to direct with scheduled flights!

VS to MLE would be nice but the Maldives is fairly well covered now by several charter flights though and a stop-off would be needed too. Although DXB could be used I guess.

I wouldn't imagine MLE would be able to cope with a B744 either [:?] although the A343/6's would be OK.

Quite an experience coming down to land at MLE, slowing down, reaching the end of the run-way, doing a full 180 then then taxing back up the runway to the very small terminal

I'd certainly give MRU a try though. Again it wouldn't be direct though would it [:?]

Regards

I'd certainly give MRU a try though. Again it wouldn't be direct though would it

BA and Air Mauritius both fly direct to MRU with BA using a 744 and Air Mauritius an A343.[:?]

VS.

Originally posted by michaeljtodd
As far as the UC cabin goes I think Virgin would have the reverse issue with a LGW plane! A lot of the people flying to Mauritius or the Maldives are paying a lot of money to stay at ultra exotic places and would simply not fly out in Economy, or Premium for that matter! I know with BA's flights to Mauritius Business is usually full, while Economy is not! Also it in one of the few routes they are not considering removing First as it sells so well!

Just my thoughts, who would want to pay £5000-£10000 for 2 weeks at a great resort and then spend 10 hours in economy, to save a grand!

Just my thoughts on it!! My vote goes to the Maldives, with BA already serving Mauritius why not go somewhere we can't get to direct with scheduled flights!

Michael - I certainly agree with you as per my latter post ... this and some of the Africa routes still attract the very affluent. I myself have flown BA Club to Mauritius and it was packed!

I'm sure that before VS and the charter airlines opened up the market to many places in the carribbean, for example, it was the same and would have had high demand "up the front." AFAIK, the charters don't have much presence at MRU, so maybe it would be the same and VS would widen the market - which is good or bad depending on how you look at it;)

VS.

I remember when VS operated BOTH zones of UC of the old LGW 744 config to barbados etc
The load was always heavy in J at winter time
I wonder how much revenue they lost on the carribbean routes given the smaller capacity of UC

Surely LHR would have better J capacity for Mauritius[?]

Well MRU would certainly be a popular Staff Travel/ Crew Stopover!!!

It would be good for a number of reasons...
MRU Doesn't just have Leisure traffic there's actually a decent amount of Banking/Finance and Manufacturing traffic on the route... certainly the Rag Trade which already flies alot to PVG, HKG and JFK often also source clothes in MRU.

Charters are currently banned from MRU, so the yield on the route hasn't been trashed yet.

Its certainly a popular Vhols destination... its no secret that if the Vhols brochure to a non VS destination goes well, then direct flights become attractive to VS.

Also with the bad Hurricane Season last year, being so dependant on the Carribbean can pose problems... ever since 9/11 VS have sought to diversify into markets to make sure all those eggs aren't in one basket.

Anyway... my lips are sealed... I love all the rumours, gets me all excited thinking about what new places I could be visiting... though I used to live on MRU, so it wouldn't be so new for me... but nice to visit old mates... if it ever does happen!

Originally posted by virgin is the best
We crew do get long stopovers. CPT upto 4 nights, MBJ when we start we will get 5 nights, 4 night UVF, we used to get 4 night PVG and DEL.

They cant fly us back incase they cant get a crew back there for some reason then they would have customers stuck there.

The cost of tickets for us esp in peak season.

The crew union would not allow it to happen we dont do this job to fly there and then come back if we wanted to do that we could work for My Travel or some other charter airline.

I was about to say that MRU crew could fly to JNB to work on a return leg and some crew could fly on to MRU after a JNB run. SAA and Air Mauritius have the duopoly on the route at present so the flight prices are expensive. Comair (BA South Africa) is just about to start flying the route as well, so the capacity should soon be higher.

I'll tell you one thing; nothing gets past you lot, eh? There are managers at Virgin who dont know what you lot know!!

It is true - VS will fly from LGW to Mauritius from November 07, I can't remember if it's once or twice per week. Virgin Holidays submitted proposals to fly to Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives and Sri Lanka as they are looking to expand in the Indian Ocean now that VHOLS/VAA more or less reign in the Caribbean! Lack of aircraft meant only one new route could be looked at and MRU came out tops!

The route will go on sale when VHOLS new Worldwide brochure comes out (June or July i think).