Virgin Atlantic to launch flights to Tampa?

The slot allocation report at Heathrow for the upcoming Winter schedule (which starts on the 29th October) has just been published.

We’ve already reported on JetBlue gaining permanent slots at Heathrow but there have been a few other changes.

Whilst most of the ‘new’ routes are simply extensions of existing summer slots, it looks like Virgin Atlantic could be launching a brand new flight to Florida, complementing its Miami and Orlando flights. This would be in the form of a new direct flight to Tampa.

The slot allocation is for one flight per day, seven days per week.

This seems relatively sensible, given that leisure travel demand is still outstripping business travel and with Florida one of Virgin’s key destinations. It also integrates well with Virgin Holidays.

Whilst Virgin has received slots for the route, there is no guarantee it will actually launch the flight. It could still back out – we will have to wait and see.

Apart from JetBlue and Virgin Atlantic, other slot gainers – all of which have come from Russian carriers – are:

• Avianca – four flights per week
• WestJet – three flights per week
• China Airlines – four flights per week
• Vistara – seven flights per week

What isn’t clear is what will happen when the Ukraine crisis ends, Russian sanctions are lifted and the Russian carriers request new Heathrow slots. Unless they are made available, it is very likely that UK airlines would be blocked from flying to Moscow in retaliation.

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As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)