Virgin Atlantic Cargo to launch daily Heathrow-Cape Town flights

Virgin Atlantic Cargo will launch a new daily Heathrow-Cape Town service from October 2020 and increase capacity to Cuba as part of their winter flying programme

Feb 12, 2020: Virgin Atlantic Cargo will launch a new daily Heathrow-Cape Town service from October 2020 and increase capacity to Cuba as part of their winter flying programme.

As Virgin Atlantic celebrates 24 years of services to South Africa, the introduction of Cape Town flights from Heathrow for the winter season will offer new export and import opportunities for customers already supporting Virgin Atlantic’s existing double daily services from Heathrow to Johannesburg. The 787-9 service will commence on October 25.

South Africa is one of Virgin Atlantic’s most popular cargo routes, attracting regular shipments of pre-packed fruit salads, vegetables, stone fruits and fish as well as car parts, computer and electrical components, mining equipment, pharmaceuticals, books and magazines. In March, Johannesburg will also be the first non-US route to begin services with the airline’s new Airbus A350-1000.

The VS478 will operate as a night flight departing Heathrow at 16:20 arriving into Cape Town at 05:55 whereas the inbound, the VS479, will depart at 08:00 landing later that day at 18:00.

Virgin Atlantic will also reinforce its position as the only airline flying directly to Havana from London Heathrow by adding another weekly service to the city. Flights will depart Heathrow every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday on a 787-9 aircraft.

The winter flying enhancements are in addition to Virgin Atlantic’s new daily services from Heathrow to Sao Paulo, second daily Delhi flights and increased Heathrow-San Francisco flights, which all take-off at the end of March. Virgin Atlantic Cargo is also marketing the cargo capacity of Virgin Australia’s new daily Brisbane-Tokyo Haneda flights, which start on 29th March.

Dominic Kennedy, managing director of Virgin Atlantic Cargo, said, “This year, with the growth of our flying programme and our new expanded joint venture with Air France-KLM and Delta, we’re giving our cargo customers unprecedented access to new markets, new gateways in existing markets and extra frequencies. South Africa is a great cargo market and the addition of Cape Town to our network, alongside the launch of A350 flights on Johannesburg, will increase the choice we can offer our customers in the UK and South Africa as well as those in the US who trade with South Africa via our London hub. We are also pleased to be offering more capacity for customers moving goods to and from Havana. 2020 is an exciting year for Virgin and our customers.”