Virgin confirms new flights and shop openings
Virgin Atlantic is to launch more flights from Manchester and Gatwick next summer, while Virgin Holidays will open five additional retail stores by the end of this year.
The airline will offer a total of 43,000 extra seats from Manchester to Orlando, Barbados and Las Vegas for summer 2020, an 11% increase in capacity.
It will also have two extra flights a week from London Gatwick to Orlando, offering up to 18 flights a week in the peak summer season
Together with partners Virgin Connect (formerly Flybe) and Delta Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic will offer almost 800,000 long haul-seats next summer.
It already announced in September that it was adding 30,000 seats from the northwest for this winter.
To complement the capacity growth, Virgin Holidays will be investing in five new retail stores, creating 28 jobs.
The stores, which are all scheduled to open this year, will be in Birmingham, Derby, Peterborough, Romford and Stoke-on-Trent.
The five new stores are in addition to seven already scheduled openings in Canterbury, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and St Albans, all of which are on track to open before the end of the December, said Virgin.
Flights for summer 2020 will go on sale on Saturday.
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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