Virgin Atlantic Cargo expands services to South Africa, Cuba

Virgin Atlantic Cargo will expand its winter program services to South Africa and Cuba from Heathrow (LHR) this year with the launch of a new daily Cape Town (CPT) service on Oct. 25, as well as an additional weekly service to Havana (HAV).

Cape Town will be a new destination for Virgin Atlantic, which will operate the LHR-CPT route using a 787-9 aircraft. The route will operate as a night flight, departing LHR at 16:20 local time and arriving into Cape Town at 05:55 local time; the inbound flight will depart CPT at 08:00 local time, landing later that day at LHR at 18:00 local time. The introduction of the LHR-CPT route for the winter season is a move to offer new export and import opportunities for customers in the region. The carrier anticipates shipments on this route will include agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, car parts, computer and electrical components, mining equipment, books and magazines.

Virgin Atlantic will also bump up capacity on its current LHR- HAV schedule with an additional weekly service between the cities, with departures from LHR every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday on a 787-9 aircraft. According to the carrier, it is currently the only one flying directly to HAV from LHR. The exact date the weekly service will launch has not yet been disclosed.

“This year, with the growth of our flying program 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,” Dominic Kennedy, managing director of Virgin Atlantic Cargo, said in a press release.

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