Detroit will become Virgin Atlantic Cargo’s eleventh destination in North America on June 1st with the start of daily flights to and from London Heathrow, giving customers greater access to and from the U.S Midwest.
Virgin Atlantic’s daily Airbus A330 flight will offer over 16 tonnes of capacity in both directions and the airline expects customers in the UK, Europe, India and South Africa that already use its daily Chicago services to welcome a second destination into the popular U.S. Midwest cargo market. The new route increases the choice of U.S. destinations for Virgin Atlantic’s customers and joins Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, San Francisco and Washington. It will also give U.S customers more access to the airline’s international network which now offers over 400 direct and onforwarding destinations, including more than 50 cities across Europe. Detroit is Virgin Atlantic’s second new U.S. destination in the last eight months, following the addition of Atlanta to the airline’s network in October. A second daily London-Atlanta service started at the end of March as well as a new daily non-stop flight connecting Manchester and Atlanta. Virgin Atlantic’s summer 2015 schedule has also seen the introduction of additional frequencies on its New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas routes. John Lloyd, Senior Vice President Cargo at Virgin Atlantic, said: “Transatlantic services have been our biggest market for over 30 years and with the addition of Detroit and extra frequencies to and from other major U.S gateways, we are giving customers our biggest ever choice in terms of routes, capacity, flight times and onward connections. The positive economic outlook for both the U.S and the UK means we are adding capacity at a time when customers of both sides of the Atlantic are gaining in confidence and looking for new trade opportunities and we’re ready to support them.”