Virgin Atlantic sees extra revenue from 3-tier economy offering

Virgin Atlantic’s decision to divide its economy product into 3 tiers 2 years ago has been paying dividends, EVP-commercial Juha Jarvinen said. The carrier now offers economy light, the lowest fare with hand baggage only; classic economy, with one checked bag; and economy delight, which adds more legroom and priority boarding. Premium and upper-class products are also available. “Since doing that and since we have the same class mix, we actually grew incremental revenue by GBP27m [US$34m] since the launch in March 2018,” Jarvinen said. The airline has seen incremental revenue from passengers buying more bags or upgrading to economy delight, he said. The economy light offering was an effort to better compete with LCCs like Norwegian, and often exceeds passengers’ expectations, Jarvinen said. <br/>