Business travel recovery boosts Virgin
A recovery in the corporate travel market and the roll out if its Upper Class Suite helped Virgin Atlantic attract 26% more business travellers in its last financial year, figures have shown.
The airline carried more than 352,000 business passengers in the 12 months to February, up from 279,700 the previous year. It gives Virgin a 56% load factor in its Upper Class Suite, the highest since 2000.
Virgin Atlantic chairman Sir Richard Branson said the reasons were three-fold.
“Of the 26% increase, 5% is down to the increase in seats offered as we added new aircraft to our fleet and we’ve also seen an overall increase in the number of business travellers as the sector finally arrests a four year decline,” he said. “However, the majority of the increase has come from grabbing market share from our rivals. These figures show that the Upper Class Suite has been the most successful launch in our history.”
Launched in November 2003, the service is available on all Virgin’s Boeing 747-400 and Airbus 340-600 aircraft and is currently being fitted into its A340-300 fleet.
Meanwhile, Virgin Holidays has confirmed the appointment of former Orange director David Coutts as marketing director, ending a six month search following the departure of Kathryn Beadle.
Report by Steve Jones
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