Virgin Atlantic is set to launch new routes from London Heathrow to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Accra, Ghana, in summer 2025. Tickets will be available starting September 12, 2024.
The daily service to Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport is designed to support the growth anticipated from Saudi Vision 2030. Forecasts suggest a 24% increase in air travel between the UK and Saudi Arabia from 2019 to 2035, with annual trade between the two nations aimed to grow from £17.1 billion in 2023 to £30 billion by 2030.
The Riyadh route is expected to have a significant Saudi Arabian customer base, facilitating travel to the UK and seamless connections to 12 North American destinations via Virgin Atlantic and Delta networks. This includes cities like Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles. The service will also cater to the ‘visiting friends and relatives’ market, which has seen a fivefold increase in Saudis living in the UK between 2000 and 2018.
Flights to Riyadh will be operated daily on the A330neo aircraft, starting March 30, 2025. The partnership with Saudia will provide further connections to destinations such as Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, and more within Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and China. Flying Club members can earn and redeem points across Saudia’s flights, and all Saudia-operated flights from Heathrow and Manchester to Riyadh and Jeddah are already marketed by Virgin Atlantic.
Additionally, Virgin Atlantic has signed a Strategic Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding with Saudia to enhance connectivity, expand networks, and improve customer experience. This agreement lays the groundwork for a long-term relationship, potentially including interline and codeshare connectivity and loyalty benefits.
Virgin Atlantic will also resume flights to Accra, Ghana, from May 2025, marking its return since 2013. The UK has the third-largest Ghanaian diaspora globally, and the new service will address the demand for visiting friends and relatives. About 10% of these customers are expected to connect through London to Virgin Atlantic’s New York JFK service. The daily flights to Accra will be operated on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, offering various cabin classes and an onboard bar.
In other developments, Virgin Atlantic recently announced its return to Canada and will suspend its Heathrow-Shanghai route in October due to increased flight times and costs related to the Ukraine conflict.