Virgin Atlantic Announces Flights for Islamabad and Lahore from December

[Abbas Ali]

Virgin Atlantic will start flights for Pakistan from December.

The airline will operate flights from London Heathrow Airport to both Lahore and Islamabad, plus direct services from Manchester to Islamabad. Flights go on sale in September.



Abbas

[baberblues]

Fantastic news! Great to have them coming!

[baberblues]

Lahore and Islamabad is where the money is at! They know there is a market so I wish them full success

[dragonfly]

As quoted before
LH and AF may also join very soon.

LHR-ISB-MAN And MAN-ISB-LHR rotating the aircraft between LHR and MAN and allowing for aircraft line maintenance at base, and most importantly BA is aware of the VFR demand from MAN as they served MAN ISB MAN non
Stop with 747-400,flights operated from LGW.... BA2129/2128) or VS may try MAN operations with their 330s with a Y heavy cabin.
Baramjee if your reading this your valuable stats on passenger NOs would be great as always.
Would be surprised if BA operates 35K to
ISB more likely a combination of 788/78K due to
capacity requirements and freight,would be great to see 77W in BA colours in ISB.

[dabi]

This is amazing news.

[baberblues]

We’re thrilled to let you know that we’re adding two brand new destinations to our flying schedule. From December, we’ll be flying four times a week from London Heathrow to Lahore, three times a week from Heathrow to Islamabad, and four times weekly from Manchester to Islamabad. And of course, every flight will have the fantastic Virgin Atlantic experience, from our three ways to fly Economy to our beautiful Upper Class suites. Flights will be available to book from September.

https://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/de ... istan.html

[faisal-777]

Good to know despite some negative publicity of ISB airport, more airlines are considering to fly.

I was trying to check if this also benefits passengers in mainland Europe. Looks like Virgin Atlantic does not have connections to all major European capitals.

[baberblues]

Good to know despite some negative publicity of ISB airport, more airlines are considering to fly.

I was trying to check if this also benefits passengers in mainland Europe. Looks like Virgin Atlantic does not have connections to all major European capitals.

Virgin are having serious cash flow problems at the minute and the know VFR traffic is what will give them time and also money to make a profit on. With no PIA, and smaller BA service to Islamabad only from London Heathrow, now Virgin has seen an golden egg to start its services ahead of BA and jumped into Lahore too!

I think this is now going to be for mostly US connections, but BA have the upperhand in european connections.

Great to see a lot of airlines now entering the market! Lets see how this plays out!

[SBP]

Ok wow I honestly never thought I’d see the day.

Very pleased about this news. For many years I stuck with BA because of their network covering USA and including code sharing and then direct to Pakistan. Finally tried VS last Sept and haven’t looked back since. Huge fan of Premium - to me much more personal service that World Traveler Plus. Can’t wait to try to it next year

[dragonfly]

Interesting times ahead!.... The Viking Ship ( SK ) also very interested in opening CPH/OSL to ISB..... around same time as VS

[NL]

Lots of airlines looking for places to deploy their excess capacity. Seems they're focusing on VFR demand, while business and tourism air travel remains low for the foreseeable future. Not having to deal with the false competition of PIA (kept afloat only by burning through record amounts of taxpayers' money) probably also helps.

[adamalikhan]

Great news for sure.

I am just surprised that AirBlue is sat idle and not maximizing on this opportunity. They served this route with A340 and smaller aircrafts (A321, A320 and even A319).

Serene Air now with their A330s should try and initiate before Virgin does.

[Amaad Lone]

amazing news for passengers who want to fly direct but do not want to use PIA torture flight.

Virgin is a superior product and the flights to Pakistan and back are going to be packed.

Will save hours rather than flying Arab or Turkish airlines.

Best news for Lahore passengers in a long time.

I think this is going to be one of the last nails in PIA coffin.

[Ash0707]

At least as passengers we now have more choice flying direct instead of via the Middle East. I’m really looking forward to flying with VA. I wonder if any other airline will take any slots from BHX. PIA really need to up their game now as people are fed up with flying on planes that have no IFE, rude staff, appalling food and the list goes on.

[Zee-777]

As quoted before
LH and AF may also join very soon.

LHR-ISB-MAN And MAN-ISB-LHR rotating the aircraft between LHR and MAN and allowing for aircraft line maintenance at base, and most importantly BA is aware of the VFR demand from MAN as they served MAN ISB MAN non
Stop with 747-400,flights operated from LGW.... BA2129/2128) or VS may try MAN operations with their 330s with a Y heavy cabin.
Baramjee if your reading this your valuable stats on passenger NOs would be great as always.
Would be surprised if BA operates 35K to
ISB more likely a combination of 788/78K due to
capacity requirements and freight,would be great to see 77W in BA colours in ISB.

Good points but I think Virgin has stopped operating from Gatwick. Flights will be from Manchester and Heathrow.

Also they will no longer be operating their 747s, I really hope they use their new A350’s.

Zeeshan