Virgin Atlantic’s return to Canada stirs ghosts of airlines past

With Virgin Atlantic returning to Toronto after a 10-year absence, first-time passengers will surely thrill to Canada’s vast expanses as they soar across the ocean from congested London. Perhaps less known to neophytes, they will also be cruising over a vast graveyard, figuratively speaking, of failed transatlantic carriers. Richard Branson’s Virgin last flew to Toronto’s Pearson in 2014 after a brief Vancouver foray from 2012 to 2014. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, it will begin direct flights between London Heathrow and Toronto Pearson on March 30 and has been making all the right noises about its return to this country. “At Virgin Atlantic we always think there’s a spot for us,” spokesman Simon Hawkins told travelweek.ca. “We know there is a dominant carrier. There’s Air Canada, and there’s also British Airways and Transat. We think there’s space in there for us. We have strong appeal and we offer something unique.” Juha Jarvinen, Virgin Atlantic’s CCO, predicted “huge opportunities to connect friends, relatives and businesses,” while Hawkins declared Virgin is “excited” about building “more of a footprint in Canada,” adding — perhaps with an eye on the ghosts of carriers past — “it’s very early days.” Virgin’s Canadian comeback is to be welcomed, not least because it is an excuse to recall — fondly for some, furiously for others — the upstarts who’ve flown and foundered on the Canada-U. K. route, their contrails lingering mostly among online aviation geeks and collectors of aircraft ephemera.<br/>