Heathrow connectivity trumps Gatwick return for Virgin Atlantic chief

While Virgin Atlantic CE Shai Weiss continues to hit out at charges and capacity planning at London Heathrow Airport, the efficiencies and better connectivity the hub provides means a return to London Gatwick is not on the cards. Virgin, which has its headquarters in Crawley near Gatwick, had served the airport since its launch in 1984 before taking the decision to consolidate its operations at Heathrow airport during the pandemic. ”Through the pandemic we had to make some tough decisions and one of them was to move all our flying from Gatwick into Heathrow and consolidate our position there,” Weiss said. “We’ve actually increased the number of slots available to Virgin Atlantic there, that has improved our utilisation of planes by virtue of efficiency which is a tremendous contribution to improving our financial performance.” Virgin already had a majority of its services operating from Heathrow even before the pandemic, serving only Las Vegas and Orlando in the USA and Caribbean leisure destinations from Gatwick. Weiss flags connectivity as the key benefit of Heathrow operations, which has become even more important after joining its shareholder and partner Delta Air Lines in its transatlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM – none of whom fly into Gatwick. “[There is] 30-40% connectivity at Heathrow, it is already the most busy airport as it should be, and only 10% connectivity at Gatwick despite the fact its extremely well run,” he says. ”We have consolidated at Heathrow, it has benefits for our consumers, it has benefits for Virgin Atlantic and it is necessary when we are partnership with Delta, Air France and KLM. ”If by magic you could create another airport of that magnitude which would be a gateway to the UK, we would consider it. But until that happens, we are at Heathrow.”<br/>