LONDON – On July 6, it has been announced by the United Kingdom-based leisure carrier, Virgin Atlantic, that they will be starting services to Tampa.
The New Tampa Service
As Virgin continues on its transatlantic expansion carrying on from its recent latest inaugural route to Austin, Texas in May, Virgin will be starting new services to Tampa International Airport (TPA) in Florida, United States from the carrier’s hub at London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR).
As well to Tampa and Austin, Virgin Atlantic has also in the last year launched services to St Vincent and the Grenadines, The Bahamas, and St Lucia in the Caribbean back in 2021, as well as serving Orlando from the Scottish city of Edinburgh that started very recently.
The new route will inaugurate on November 3, 2022, which will initially be served four times per week, however, will increase to a daily service from November 28.
This new service to Tampa will certainly complement Virgin’s existing four daily flights to Orlando from across the United Kingdom as well as their twice-daily service to Miami.
The new route will mean that Virgin will be offering over 190,000 seats per year to Tampa alone and will become the first British carrier to connect the Tampa Bay region with the UK capital’s main gateway airport, London Heathrow.
Virgin has not yet announced which aircraft it will be serving on this route, but we imagine it would be a mixture of its Airbus A330-300s, Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner,s and even potentially its new Airbus A350-1000s as well.
At present, Virgin Atlantic has a total of 36 aircraft in its fleet, this is broken down as, 10 Airbus A330-300s, nine Airbus A350-1000s, and 17 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
On top of this, the carrier has a further five orders for the Airbus A350-1000 as well as later this year, the carrier is set to become the first UK airline to receive the Airbus A330neo, in this case, Virgin has a total of 14 Airbus A330-900neo’s on order that are due to be delivered between later this year and 2026.
Leader Comments
Virgin Atlantic’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Juha Jarvinen, has said, “We are delighted to continue our expansion in the US with this new daily service to Tampa, Florida offering even more choice for customers on both sides of the Atlantic to connect between the US and the UK. Florida is very much a firm favorite for our customers ever since our first flight to Miami back in 1986.”
“With the popular theme parks and the stunning beaches of St Pete and Clearwater within easy reach, we know it’s an area our customers will love to explore.”
“The region has a booming economy with high profile businesses moving to the area and many budding entrepreneurs registering start-ups in the city.”
“We very much look forward to forging new relationships within the Tampa Bay community and cannot wait to welcome customers, both existing and new onboard, flying them safely to explore this exciting region.”
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tampa International Airport, Joe Lopano, also adds, “We at Tampa International Airport are thrilled to offer our first-ever nonstop route to Heathrow and launch this new partnership with Virgin Atlantic.”
“Not only does this create another Tampa-London option for our leisure travelers, but there’s a huge upside for our thriving business community to now have a direct connection to the world’s premier business airport.”
“We expect this to be a popular route during what we know will be a very busy winter travel season at TPA.”
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