Virgin Atlantic will pull off the London to Mumbai route from early May citing economic reasons. The carrier blames a mix of slumping demand and irrational pricing by rivals for the move.
Virgin’s last flight from Heathrow will be VS350 at 2115 on May 2 with VS351 at 1340 the final service out of Mumbai on May 3.
Says a spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic, “We’ve taken the decision to temporarily suspend flights on this route. Demand for seats on this route is falling fast and the current operators on this route are price dumping seats.
“Official figures show that passenger numbers fell by 18 per cent between January and November 2008 compared to the same period in 2007.
“The route is full of carriers making huge losses so we are not prepared to continue serving it.
“We will monitor the situation with a view to returning to the route when the economic situation might make it profitable to do so.
“Our Delhi service continues unchanged and we will continue to look at serving other cities in India."
For more information visit virginatlantic.com. To read a recent Business Traveller review of the economy class product on this route, click here.
Report by Alex McWhirter
Update: Finnair has also announced it is to suspend its four-times weekly service between Helsinki and Mumbai from this May - for more information click here.
