Virgin Atlantic tries hub model in linking Mumbai to New York, via London
Skift Take
With India's own airlines players in turmoil, this is a good strategic move from Virgin Atlantic to capture the cross continental traffic from a growing outbound market like India.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. is endorsing more than just the merits of India’s largest city with its resurrection of Mumbai flights this week.
The service is timed to arrive or depart London’s Heathrow airport within two hours of flights to and from cities including New York and Washington. That’s a change from a strategy based on single journeys and marks the emergence of a hub model aimed at snaring lucrative inter-continental transfer passengers.
Adding destinations east of London makes the best use of Virgin’s 88 weekly services from Heathrow to North America as trans-Atlantic routes attract increased competition from British Airways and ally American Airlines. Passenger numbers on its existing New Delhi-London-New York service rose 20 percent last year, with gains spurred by a doubling in bookings from the U.S.
“We see very strong links between Mumbai, London and New York,” Virgin Atlantic spokesman Greg Dawson said. “The connectivity is really good and there are a lot of business people, friends and family traveling both directions.”
The Mumbai
