Virgin Atlantic Launches A New Destination In... Mexico
Intro
Virgin Atlantic has been redesigning their fleet network, dropping a multitude of routes and recetnyl adding Accra, Riyadh, and Toronto. Well, Virgin Atlantic has jsut annunced its latest destination in Mexico and it is one that makes complete sense in the grand scheme of things.
London-Cancun
Starting october 19th, 2025, Virgin Atlantic will be adding 3x weekly flights from the capital of England, to Cancun, Mexico. This route will be operated by an A350-1000 on Wednesday, Fridays, and Sundays with the following schedule:
VS93: London-Cancun departing 10:10 AM arriving 4:15 PM
VS93: Cancun-London departing 6:45 PM arriving 9:05 AM (+1 day)
Virgin Atlantic has two different subfleets of the A350-1000. There is a more premium configuration that flies to the Americas (usually), and a less premium version that serves the likes of Delhi. Virgin Atlantic will be utilizing the more dense version of their A350 featuring 16 Business Class seats, 56 premium economy seats, and 325 economy seats.
The flight is blocked in at just over 4900 miles with the Westbound time scheudled at 11 hours and 5 minutes, and the return just being just over 9 hours.
Interestingly, Virgin Atlantic will be the first airline (at the moment) to operate the direct route from Heathrow to Cancun. While British Airways serves daily service from London Gatwick, and TUI serves a couple of times weekly between the two cities, this will open up easier connection from those coming from Africa/Middle East.
My Thoughts
This route seems like a logical enough route for Virgin Atlantic to operate. There is plenty of traffic during the winter from London to Cancun, and with business travel taking a downward trend in the winter months, this makes sense. However, the one thing that stands out to me is that VS is operating an A350-1000 on this route. I would have imagined that they might have better use for that aircraft, and instead flown a 787-9 on this route.
In terms of Business Class, I would imagine that around Christmas time, the airline could sell a lot more than 48 seats per week to Cancun. The 787-9 features 27 business class seats in comparison.
Perhaps this is why I am not in charge of an airline😅
Final Thoughts
Beginning October, 2025, Virgin Atlantic will be launching 3x weekly service between London and Cancun. The plane that they have chosen is the high density A350-1000, which is an interesting choice. The risk is low for this route, although the potential is definitelt there. Now let's see how much the prices are once the tickets go on sale, as BA has monopolized the premium market to Cancun for a while now.
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