The British airline hopes to bring 100 000 extra tourists and visitors to Cape Town from year-end.
The seasonal service launches in November 2022. It complements the existing service flying between Johannesburg and London Heathrow. The VS478 will operate as a night flight. It departs Heathrow at 16:20 arriving in Cape Town at 06:00; inbound, the VS479, will depart at 08:00 and land later in the day at 17:45. The Cape Town flights will be operated on Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787-9 aircraft. This offers customers the airline’s award-winning Upper Class, Premium and Economy Light, Classic and Delight cabins.
Stay online in the sky
Passengers can look forward to a full onboard service in each of the cabins. This includes complimentary food and drink. There are also more than 300 hours of entertainment in the form of films, TV and music channels.
For those who like to keep abreast of the latest developments in the world, Wi-Fi is not a problem and can be found on all the 787-9 aeroplanes. This way clients can be connected online while flying to their destination.
South Africa is our home
Founder of the Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson says: “South Africa is home to so much of our Virgin family, from Virgin Active to our Virgin Limited Edition hotels, Ulusaba and Mont Rochelle. it’s a pleasure to be opening this route to allow even more people to experience all that Cape Town has to offer.
“It might be a little later than we had hoped. Virgin Atlantic planned to reintroduce this route in 2020, however, it was paused temporarily due to the pandemic. Our fantastic teams are now ready to go and can’t wait to welcome customers later in the year. ” This way, loved ones and colleagues can be connected. Customers can also explore the Mother City and its beautiful surroundings.
More cargo in the skies
The Head of Africa, Middle East and India, at Virgin Atlantic, Liezl Gericke commented: “We have been committed to this route since we first announced it back in February 2020. I am thrilled that it is finally taking to the skies!
“This service will make it even easier for our customers to travel for business and leisure between South Africa and the United Kingdom. It will also provide seamless connections via Heathrow to Europe and North America.
She added, that there’ll also be additional cargo capacity on the route. The transporting of essential goods between South Africa and the UK and beyond will received a boost.
The Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde and Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis were also at the event.
