With Richard Branson’s South African retreats including safari lodges and vineyards, it only makes sense for Virgin Atlantic to fly there. For years however, “there” meant Johannesburg, and not Cape Town. In a surprise announcement, that’s all changing. Virgin Atlantic will launch service to Cape town on October 25th, and we’ve got all the details…
Virgin Atlantic Cape Town Flight
Virgin Atlantic will compliment their London Johannesburg flights with a new daily Cape Town flight from October 25th. The new Cape Town flight, operated by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner will depart London Heathrow at 16:40 with flight number VS478, landing 5:55AM the next morning, just in time for sunrise over Table Mountain.
The return flight from Cape Town to London Heathrow will operate flight number VS479 departing 8AM and returning into Heathrow at 18:00 in the early evening, same day. Virgin will upgrade their Johannesburg flight to an Airbus A350-1000 from March 20th, 2020.
“We’re delighted to be flying to Cape Town again – we’re expecting a high proportion of leisure travellers on this route taking advantage of the winter sun, the safaris and of course, the world-famous wine region.”
– Juha Jarvinen, CCO Virgin Atlantic
For passengers, this is fantastic news. If recent years have proven anything in the airline industry, competition on a route brings lower fares, and this will force British Airways, which presently has had the monopoly on this direct flight to battle it out.
The new Virgin Atlantic flights go on sale February 18th, which leaves under a week before you can book onto the direct service. Virgin notes particularly good deals will be available if you book both flight and hotel in one, with round trip flights plus four nights hotel with breakfast from £899 per person.
This is also yet another welcome way to cash in your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles, fresh on the heels of new redemption opportunities with Air France, KLM and more. Could this be a huge year for Virgin Atlantic? We’ll soon see…
