Virgin Atlantic Eyes A Return to Gatwick

Virgin Atlantic is considering a return to flight operations at London Gatwick Airport.

Virgin has massively upped its rewards game by linking its frequent flyer programme Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to its new Virgin Red loyalty programme and replacing Virgin Atlantic Miles with the more widely accepted Virgin Points. Reward flight seekers can pick points up, not only from flights, but also from existing partners like Tesco, and across all the Virgin Group brands, such as Virgin Media. Also, unlike Flying Club Miles, Virgin Points do not expire.

But while the opportunities to earn airline points have increased in recent months, chances to redeem them for flights have remained limited, particularly for travellers from south-east England with both Virgin and BA suspending departures from Gatwick Airport.

Virgin Atlantic drastically scaled back its services when the pandemic hit and has consolidated its London departures into Heathrow until demand for international flights returns. But now it looks like the airline could be planning a return to Gatwick, which is good news for anyone looking to make a Virgin points redemption.

Back to America

While all countries have had a variety of rules on covid tests and quarantine this year, few destinations have been still barring Brits altogether. The UK government’s own messy traffic light system was, until recently, the bigger cause of frustration for travellers and airlines alike.

But while we have been welcoming Americans back from this summer, the US stood firm in effectively barring Brits, and many other nationalities, from all but essential visits. Its own citizens also had to quarantine if they returned from the UK. It took until November for transatlantic routes to reopen and the US still requires arrivals to show they have been fully vaccinated, besides the more usual proof of a negative PCR test.

Nevertheless, it was an emotional return, with old rivals BA and Virgin Atlantic staging an historic simultaneous take off on parallel runways at Heathrow on November 8.

Virgin is heavily reliant on US routes for revenue. It hasn’t the fall back range of destinations that other carriers have and the 18 months absence was crippling. Welcoming the comeback, chief executive Shai Weiss said: “We are simply not Virgin without the Atlantic.”

Slots remain an issue

Biden’s green light for Brits is not the end of the story. The number of flights Virgin can currently put on to the US is still lower than it would like. At Heathrow it has far fewer slots than its main rival British Airways, which is why it is supporting an airport coalition lobbying the UK Government to reintroduce the ‘use it or lose it’ rule. This forces airlines to use at least 80% of their slots at major UK airports or forfeit them but, for understandable reasons, the requirement has been suspended during the pandemic.

The case for London Gatwick

While Virgin waits on a UK Government decision ‘early next year’ to see if it might get some extra slots at Heathrow, returning to Gatwick may be a better bet. Indeed as it has its own unused slots at the Sussex airport the airline will have to swiftly make its mind up if the ‘use it or lose it’ rule is reinstated.

Virgin had been at London Gatwick Airport since 1984, it was the airport its first ever flight took off from, to Newark airport near New York. Virgin Atlantic’s headquarters are even on Gatwick’s doorstep. So relocating flights to Heathrow after the pandemic meant a move away from the airline’s spiritual home.

But Virgin has now indicated that a LGW return is just a matter of time and economies of scale. The Times this month reported Virgin as saying: “We maintain our ambition to rebuild our presence at Gatwick as soon as demand returns.” The airline claimed its US flights were 90% full, in the week immediately after the Biden administration eased curbs on UK citizens visiting the USA.

Spending your Virgin Points

Unlike BA, Virgin Atlantic does not guarantee a fixed number of reward seats per flight, where tickets can be purchased entirely with points, but its scheme is fairly flexible.

If you’re itching to spend your miles, but can’t find a Virgin points redemption you can also consider using them with its partner airlines, such as Delta, Air France and KLM. However, since a generous move made last September, Virgin Atlantic reward flights can now count towards your tier status in the Flying Club while those made with its partners will not.

Virgin Atlantic has increased its flights from London Heathrow, compared to a few months ago and a return to Gatwick would be likely to see that trend continue, with a high likelihood of more departures to leisure destinations such as Las Vegas, Orlando and the Caribbean.

We think the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a pretty generous scheme, especially since the moves on tier status and the extra chances to accrue Virgin Points. Flying Club members would certainly welcome a move back to Gatwick, as it would mark a return to form for Virgin and a wider choice of flights to redeem loyalty points on.