Virgin Atlantic Announces Flights To Accra, Ghana
Intro
As I previously have written about, Virgin Atlantic has canceled a couple of routes, including the Shanghai route. Virgin Atlantic is a fantastic carrier that seems to be changing its business model slightly with that being said. Virgin Atlantic will be launching new routes to Riyadh, Toronto, and, most excitingly, Accra.
Let's get into it!
The Details
As of May 1st, 2025, Virgin Atlantic will be operating non-stop flights from London Heathrow to Accra, Ghana. The route will be operated with a 787-9 with the following schedule.
VS403: London-Accra departing at 10:30PM and arriving at 5:00AM (+1 day)
VS404: Accra-London departing at 9:15AM and arriving at 5:25PM
Interestingly, this will be Virgin Atlantic's fourth route to an African destination, with daily service to Lagos and Johannesburg, while the airline also operates seasonally to Cape Town.
The flight is blocked in at 6 hours and 30 minutes southbound and 7 hours and 10 minutes northbound. As the crow flies, this route is 3,160 nautical miles, but one can expect the flight to be a little bit longer.
In terms of booking the ticket, expect that there should be quite a few reward seats open in Business Class, while economy fares should fall in line with those of British Airways (which also operates a daily non-stop flight).
My Thoughts
When I first heard this news, I was actually quite excited, to be frank. With Virgin Atlantic pulling out of Asia (mostly), and since most of the major US markets are already served by them, it's exciting to see another route opening up to Africa. British Airways has a monopoly in the market, so this will be a great opportunity for fares to come down!
Additionally, I could see this route being relatively profitable. Load factors aren't too bad to the likes of Nigeria and Ghana, and I would expect to see Virgin maintain an 80% load factor on this route going forwards.
Final Thoughts
As of May 1st, 2025, Virgin Atlantic will be launching non-stop daily service from London Heathrow to Accra, Ghana, utilizing a 787-9. Expect cash fares to fall in line with British Airways, who currently holds a monopoly on the market. Award seats in Business should be plentiful.
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