Virgin Atlantic’s New LAX-MAN Route Part of Larger Growth Plan
The launch of the new Virgin Atlantic route in May is a seasonal offering that could become permanent
Capitalizing on growing demand from the U.S. Virgin Atlantic is launching more service to Manchester this summer from U.S. gateways. New LAX-MAN service launched May 26 with thrice weekly service and now now offers as many as 14,000 seats a week directly from Manchester to the United States and the Caribbean.
“Manchester has changed a lot in recent decades and is a vibrant city now with a restaurant scene, art galleries and lots to do and it is truly the gateway to the north in the U.K.,” said Sir Richard Branson on a stopover in Los Angeles last week to celebrate the new flight. “We think this will become a very popular route.”
As the gateway to the north of the UK, Manchester is the third most visited city in the UK. The city is within a two-hour drive of Liverpool, best known as the birthplace of the Beatles, the Lake District and other tourist areas.
The new flight operates three days a week, on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, and will run until October 25 — at which time it will be evaluated and possibly made permanent. The flight departs LAX at 6:30 pm and arrives in Manchester at 12:55 pm. The Virgin gates are located at the airport’s Terminal 2, which is also the new home for Delta, which operates from both Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. The flight replaces Virgin Atlantic’s discontinued SFO-MAN service, using a 259-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft
Virgin Atlantic’s 2019 growth plan also includes an increase in summer-season Boston to Manchester service three times a week. Other new routes to watch from the British carrier include flights from Heathrow to Las Vegas and Tel Aviv and a London to Brazil’s Sao Paulo next year that will mark the airline’s first service to South America.
