News

Virgin Atlantic suspends Heathrow to Accra route

6 Jun 2013 by GrahamSmith

Virgin Atlantic is suspending its flights between Heathrow and Accra due to "exceptionally high fuel costs" in Ghana.

The airline today announced that its last service on the route will depart Accra for London on September 23.

The company blamed the price of fuel, a challenging wider economic environment and an inability to operate morning arrivals from Accra due to a scarcity of slots at LHR for its decision to withdraw the service.

Edmond Rose, director of airline planning for Virgin Atlantic, said: "We have had to take the difficult decision to suspend our services between London and Accra.

"We were excited to enter the market and have been pleased to be part of the growth and development taking place in the country.

"However, we have been severely impacted by the price of fuel in Ghana this has resulted in us being forced to tanker fuel into Accra from the UK.

"Scarcity of slots at London Heathrow has meant that we have been unable to offer morning arrivals into London, which makes us a less attractive option for the business traveller. This has also limited our ability to offer connections onto our wider transatlantic network."

He added: "These are still challenging times for the airline industry and we have to deploy our aircraft to routes with the right level of demand to be financially viable."

Virgin Atlantic launched flights to Ghana in May 2010 to compete with British Airways on the Heathrow to Accra route (see online news, May 2010).

Initially operating three flights per week, the carrier increased this to five in March 2012 (see online news, February 2012).

For more information, visit virginatlantic.com.

Report by Graham Smith

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