New deal to make long-haul travel easier for Scottish passengers
Flybe has added its Glasgow to Manchester route to its codeshare agreement with Virgin Atlantic to make it easier for passengers from Scotland to transfer to long-haul flights.
Available to book from now, the agreement covers seven Virgin Atlantic destinations from Manchester, including New York, Barbados, Las Vegas and San Francisco.
The partnership with Flybe means customers in Scotland are able to connect to and from Virgin Atlantic flights, with one boarding pass and their bags checked through for the entire journey.
Virgin chief commercial officer Shai Weiss said: "Last year was the biggest ever for our Scottish customers, as we ran our longest ever season of direct flights to Orlando.
"In 2018 we’re taking our Scottish travel offering one step further. Thanks to our extended partnership with Flybe, holiday makers from Glasgow can now take advantage of our entire Manchester route network, meaning more flights to the USA and Caribbean than ever before. "
Last year, Virgin Atlantic announced that its Flybe partnership would also operate between Heathrow and Edinburgh and Aberdeen, allowing travellers access to the airline’s Heathrow routes.
The extension of the partnership was announced this morning as Flybe revealed that its third-quarter revenue per seat was up by 13.3% in the third-quarter after it cut seat capacity by 4.2%.
Passenger revenue for the quarter was up by 8.5% to £158.8 million.
Flybe said cutting costs remains a key focus for the business and the need to balance improved reliability with higher maintenance costs has been reviewed. Maintenance costs have increased, but the rate has slowed as the business has achieved greater control over reliability, it said.
The implementation of its new digital platform is progressing to plan, it said, and is expected to launch in the second half of the 2018/19 financial year when it should improve the booking experience, attract new customers and enhance the airline’s customer relationship management.
In the fourth quarter, seat capacity is down 2% year on year, 43% of seats are sold compared with 41% this time last year and there has been a 5% rise in passenger revenue.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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