Virgin Atlantic has commenced services from London Heathrow to Austin, Texas – the airline’s first new US destination since 2017.
The four-times-weekly service to the state capital has already been earmarked to go daily from spring 2023 after strong early demand from both the corporate and leisure sectors.
Services on the Heathrow-Austin route, which started on 25 May, are operated by B787‐9 aircraft with 31 Upper Class seats, 35 premium economy seats and 192 economy seats. Return fares start from £516 in economy, £817 in premium economy and from £2,014 in Upper Class.
A ‘celebration’ flight on 8 June was welcomed into Austin by Virgin Group founder and Virgin Atlantic president Sir Richard Branson, the airline’s chief commercial officer Juha Jarvinen and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport’s chief business and finance officer Mookie Patel.
Jarvinen said the occasion “represents Virgin Atlantic’s new phase of growth.” He added: “We’ve seen a huge demand for bookings and, as a result, we’re happy to confirm that the route will increase to a daily service from spring 2023.”
Branson added that with load factors in excess of 75 per cent on early flights, it was Virgin's most successful ever route launch.
Speaking to BTN Europe onboard the flight, the airline’s vice president of global sales Lee Haslett said the route had been on the airline’s radar for several years.
“We picked Austin when doing our route evaluation because it has such a strong corporate book – there’s a really strong business community but there’s leisure demand too. It’s also a fantastic cultural fit for Virgin with its entrepreneurial, challenger spirit,” he added.
Haslett said sales performance so far had been “very strong” with 20 per cent higher average ticket value on the route to date compared to the airline’s other US services.
The fast-growing city has the fourth highest rate of GDP growth in the United States since 2015 and is home to major operations of the likes of Tesla, Amazon, Apple and Google.