Virgin Atlantic returns to Brussels!

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• MT says:

  27 Oct27 October 04:01

  Maybe its time to firm up the rules on slot usage ot Heathrow. Use a slot properly or loose it. All the talk of a thrid runway and needed capacity and then you get airlines essentially slot sitting and now using Heathrow as Cargo base, sorry but if Virgin cannot use the slot effectively then they should be forced to at least loan it to someone!

  • brucebruce says:

    27 Oct27 October 09:32

    Heathrow definitely needs a 3rd runway in my opinion, the wait time from leaving the gate until you take off is crazy due to the queues of aircraft. The slightest bit of poor weather and they have to cancel flights.

    • MT says:

      27 Oct27 October 10:10

      I agree with the principal Heathrow needs a 3rd runway, but slot sitting does not help the argument it hinders it.

      Although I am less convinced a 3rd runway would solve the issues you describe. They occur because the owners of Heathrow try and squeeze every last bit out of the asset and don’t need to pay out much for bad weather delays, so can get away with it. If a 3rd runway were build I assume they would run it at full capacity plus a bit more as soon as they possibly could given half a chance!

    • Alan Wheeler says:

      27 Oct27 October 13:28

      Agree, even without any weather issues I always get the captain saying we’ve got an air traffic control delay.

    • Paul says:

      27 Oct27 October 23:16

      Heathrow does not need a 3rd runway. London / U.K. needs a modern 24/7 airport connected by high speed rail to all major cities

  • webloid says:

    27 Oct27 October 09:35

    It was the TLV slot. What would you like to tell Virgin to use it for?

    • Dev says:

      27 Oct27 October 15:07

      Maybe a flight to Cairo, Amman, Jeddah, Bahrain, Baku, Tbilisi, Paphos, Abu Dhabi, Muscat … plenty of places they could do a same plane return within a day.

• Can2 says:

  27 Oct27 October 06:44

  I don’t understand why this piece of news is featured in HfP?

  • Andrew J says:

    27 Oct27 October 06:52

    +1

    • Domo1915 says:

      27 Oct27 October 08:02

      Surely be better to have a run down of actual new routes launched cancelled by tte low cost carriers. E.g. via easyjet / Ryanair spotted some on my social media feed new routes launched from Manchester via easyjet other day by chance. Maybe not worth stand alone article but perhaps to be good to add to “bits”.

      • NorthernLass says:

        27 Oct27 October 08:17

        Indeed, Djerba and somewhere in Iceland!

  • Barry cutters says:

    27 Oct27 October 06:52

    Because believe it or not there’s many people who read this site who are interested in aviation generally, use of aircraft , profitability of airlines, it’s not all about the use of points for free Greggs

    • Dan says:

      27 Oct27 October 07:25

      +1

    • RussellH says:

      27 Oct27 October 12:28

      Well, it may not be that interesting, but it is amusing, and at least for me, far more relevant than another article about a business class lounge on the other side of the world.

  • Ken says:

    27 Oct27 October 07:16

    3 articles per day.
    Weekend.

    Phil Space

  • Paul says:

    27 Oct27 October 08:01

    Well I found it interesting!

    Shame they’re not carrying passengers though; surely for the incremental cost of cabin crew they could make it work?

    • AJA says:

      27 Oct27 October 08:23

      I suspect that it would add complexity and slow the aircraft turn around down to add passengers. Plus it would reduce space in the hold available to cargo as there would need to be an allocation for passenger luggage which adds to complexity to ground handling too.

      I may be the odd one here but I think this is a very smart move by Virgin utilising an aircraft that would otherwise just sit empty on the ground at LHR. And potentially protecting landing slots too.

    • BA-Flyer says:

      27 Oct27 October 08:35

      When Virgin were importing PPE from China, boxes were stacked on the passenger seats, with cargo nets stretched over the top to keep them in place. Obviously this only works with lightweight cargo, but perhaps they’re doing it again this time to maximise all available space.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    27 Oct27 October 08:52

    Without it in a couple of days someone would have posted about this “new route” and why they can’t book it and rant about airline IT!

    Also it fills in one of the daily slots for 3 articles!

    Also no one forced you to read it let alone comment on!

    • Roy says:

      27 Oct27 October 09:12

      I’m pretty sure that reading all HfP articles daily is *not* optional. Failure to comply risks having your Licence to Collect Points suspended… 😀

    • Rob says:

      27 Oct27 October 09:19

      It wasn’t emailed, it’s a 4th article.

      Have a look at the top story – the one which dominates the home page – on Business Traveller this weekend: ‘Blacklane report says business travel can impact productivity’

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        27 Oct27 October 09:45

        Well I can’t see it on the HfP home page.

        The top 4 I’m seeing are

        1. Pinned story re bonus on MR transfers to VS

        2. China airlines lounge review

        3. ‘Bits’

        4. This one.

        • Rob says:

          27 Oct27 October 10:13

          Exactly. We don’t run stuff that boring.

      • jj says:

        27 Oct27 October 10:03

        I can’t see the Black lane article, but Google found me the referenced report. In a shocking exposé, a chauffeur company has discovered that executives are more productive if the book chauffeur services.

        What an extraordinary revelation!

        • George says:

          27 Oct27 October 13:24

          For some reason I read it. Good god they sound like a right bunch of snowflakes

• RobH not Rob says:

  27 Oct27 October 07:56

  +1

• meta says:

  27 Oct27 October 08:00

  It’s logical to conclude that since Virgin flew cargo to Brussels due to low passengers during pandemic, the passenger numbers are so low they have to do it again. Doesn’t bode well.

  • AJA says:

    27 Oct27 October 08:17

    Not necessarily Sounds like Virgin can make more money flying a passenger aircraft carrying cargo to Brussels and back when it would otherwise just be sitting on the ground at LHR.

    The timing of the flights suggest that Virgin can then use the plane again for longhaul routes later in the day.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      27 Oct27 October 08:59

      Indeed.

      A plane just sitting on the ground for several hours incurs parking and other fees.

      Doing this obviates VS paying those, gets them some cargo income and can also top-up pilot training hours.

      Plus cargo, valuable to the UK economy, gets moved quickly.

      • meta says:

        27 Oct27 October 10:12

        It could also take passengers rather than cargo, but they obviously can’t fill the plane to make it profitable.

• Dev says:

  27 Oct27 October 08:05

  Slot squatting no doubt. Have they completely given up on Gatwick or still pretending that they will go back one day…

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    27 Oct27 October 08:50

    How can they squat on a slot that is theirs already?

    This is a good use of a slot (because of the use/lose rule) actually moving cargo and making themselves some money.

    This isn’t like when BA would just run empty flights to the likes of Cardiff.

    • Dev says:

      27 Oct27 October 09:04

      If they don’t use it, they lose it.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        27 Oct27 October 09:16

        But they are using to use the planes dead time on the ground between other passenger flights and make money from cargo

        • meta says:

          27 Oct27 October 10:13

          But why not then do another passenger flight in that dead time?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          27 Oct27 October 10:56

          Because they only offer long haul flights?

          I’m assuming they don’t want more crew, set up short haul catering etc just for Brussels

          Then there’s the fact self loading cargo is taking up space that could be used for actual cargo ie no suitcases

    • Ken says:

      27 Oct27 October 09:24

      It’s exactly like slot squating.

      Heathrow is extremely limited in slots.

      It’s a case of having to use the slots and some revenue/ avoidance of fees is better than none.

      In no rational world do we give slots at one of the busiest airports in the world just to run cargo for 5 months of the year.

      • meta says:

        27 Oct27 October 14:18

        @TG Loyalty Just take cargo out of the equation as it’s two separate things and also the destination.

        They would need some crew anyway for these flights. They could use the slot for some mid-haul destination with 4-5 hours.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          27 Oct27 October 14:30

          How can you take cargo and the destination out 🤣

          4-5 hour mid haul is about 12 hours of use. It’s not exactly using a plane in its down time. Like this 3-4 hour turnaround is.

• Doomonger says:

  27 Oct27 October 08:13

  Plane spotters go into frenzy on new route news.

• G says:

  27 Oct27 October 08:46

  505 = SOS = more pharmaceuticals etc?

• David S says:

  27 Oct27 October 08:55

  Pity they didn’t subcontract to BA and fly to KUL

  • Peter K says:

    27 Oct27 October 09:01

    Would you really trust BA with such a subcontract? Especially a time critical one like this?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.