News: Virgin Atlantic closes its Newark lounge, Pittsburgh wooing Aer Lingus

News in brief:

Virgin Atlantic closes its lounge at Newark

As part of its pandemic restructuring, Virgin Atlantic stopped all flights to Newark to focus on New York JFK. In London, of course, it did something similar with the cessation of all London Gatwick services.

Despite this, the Clubhouse lounge at Newark remained open. Under the management of Plaza Premium, it was made available to Priority Pass customers and those willing to buy entry.

According to a US blog, the lounge closed last week. Whilst the message pinned to the door isn’t fully clear, it does give the strong impression that it will not be reopening. It is unlikely that Plaza Premium has closed it with a view to refurbishment, since by all accounts the lounge was in decent condition.

Surprisingly, there are now no Priority Pass lounges in any terminal at Newark Liberty.

Pittsburgh wooing Aer Lingus to add to existing British Airways service

According to a report in the Irish Independent, Pittsburgh International Airport officials have been meeting with Aer Lingus to discuss ‘terms’ (ie a financial incentive) to persuade the airline to launch services to the city.

Whilst British Airways already serves Pittsburgh with six flights per week, the airport believes that demand exists for another service to Europe. Aer Lingus has ordered a number of A321XLR aircraft which will allow it to expand its current single aisle services from the US East Coast to more cities which could not fill a standard twin aisle aircraft.

The first Aer Lingus A321XLR aircraft is due to arrive next year, although this could be impacted by new design changes imposed by the EU which will reduce the flying range.

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