Virgin Atlantic has announced plans to put a greater focus on the Croatian and Serbian markets in the coming period in order to grow opportunities on its extensive services to the United States via its London Heathrow hub. The carrier’s General Sales Agent in the region, Discover the World, said Virgin Atlantic will focus on working with interline partners Croatia Airlines and Air Serbia, as well as other trade partners to open up opportunities and highlight why flying on Virgin Atlantic will be beneficial for both consumers and trade partners. “Croatia and Serbia are both underserved with direct connections to North America. Our focus is to maximise the interline partnerships Virgin Atlantic have in place and work our strong trade relationships. We look forward to getting started”, Aiden Walsh, Head of Airline Partnerships and Development for Discover the World, said.
Virgin Atlantic boasts a fleet of 36 long haul aircraft. Out of its London base, it serves Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa and Washington in the United States. It also boasts nonstop flights from Manchester to Atlanta, New York and Orlando. Virgin Atlantic’s Account Manager for European Sales, John Price, said, “I am delighted to work with Discover the World in Serbia and Croatia. Setting up a sales team in these countries positions us nicely to be able to highlight the excellent connectivity which exists already today and build us strong relationships with trade partners. I look forward to meeting many new trade partners from the region in the coming months”.
Air Serbia maintains nonstop flights to the United States through its service to New York, which will be strengthened with flights to Chicago next summer season. Virgin Atlantic holds a 2% share of all US passengers flying to and from Serbia. However, Lufthansa is still the dominant carrier handling over 20% of all travellers between the two countries. In Croatia, Virgin Atlantic’s share of passengers to and from the US stands at 1%. Similar to Serbia, Lufthansa is dominant on the Croatian market for travel to the States, followed by British Airways and United Airlines, with the latter benefiting from its extensive codeshare partnership with Croatia Airlines, as well as the Lufthansa Group, in addition to its nonstop seasonal service between Newark and Dubrovnik.
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Interesting. I'm really surprised they even have a 2% passenger share considering they don't serve the market at all.
ReplyDeleteCould be some people stay loyal to frequent flyer program, spending the miles on this route...
DeleteDo you need a transfer visa to transfer at LHR with a Serbian passport?
ReplyDeleteNot just US, any Commonwealth destination too.
DeleteNice! :)
ReplyDeleteShame they don't have any narrow bodies so they can launch flights to the region.
ReplyDeleteI think they would have a few other priorities rather than this region.
DeleteThey can always start A330 flights to BEG and ZAG :p
DeleteI'm a bit disappointed that in 2023 there will no nonstop flights between Zagreb and the US again. The big three have all announced their expansion plans for next summer with a lot of new European destinations. The conditions are perfect with no visa required. Shame.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI was hopeful Air Canada would start flights too but they announced their European expansion a few days ago. Unfortunately nothing.
DeleteI wasn't aware they had an interline with Croatia Airlines. I knew about JU.
ReplyDeleteBritish Airways also has an interline agreement with Croatia Airlines
DeleteYeeeeea!!! Bravo Croatia Airlines!!!! Bravo for five weekly to Heathrow, while British, Easyjet, Jet2com, TUI, Wizz, Ryanair operate hundreds of weekly flights to several UK destinations
DeleteI don't get what you are trying to say, pozdrav. Are you being sarcastic about a ZAG-based airline being smaller in the UK than airlines with bases in the UK?
DeleteI am not trying to say but saying that Croatia Airlines has 5 weekly flights between Croatia and the UK, while other airlines, operate hundreds of weekly flights between Croatia and the UK. Or, wait Croatia Airlines has about 2 percent market share on Croatia to UK and vv market, while other airlines have between 10 and 30 percent individually, or 98 percent jointly, on the mentioned market. And yes, I am being sarcastic hailing Bravo to OU for such results.
DeleteI don't see what's remarkable about that. Croatia Airlines is based in ZAG. Only ZAG-UK is relevant for comparison.
DeleteOf course a network carrier based in a capital or main city is going to be tiny in a country pair market dominated by seasonal leisure flows to and from regional seaside airports. That goes as much for Croatia as Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Tunisia or wherever.
Of course! Aegean from Athens, Iberia from Madrid, even tiny and non european Tunisair from Tunis, they all fly to Heathrow five weekly. LOL!
DeleteVirgin Atlantic is a very good airline, so I wish them the best of luck. Although I haven't flown with them for several years, at least they used to have a good product and really friendly, personable crew.
ReplyDeleteThey are still a great airline :)
DeleteThat is one beautiful looking A350!
ReplyDeleteLooks good inside too.
DeleteBeautifully...
DeleteNice US network they got there. I know a few people who flew with them via London.
ReplyDeleteAre the connecting times good on VS when you arrive from an OU or JU flight?
ReplyDeleteYes onto certain flights.
DeleteYou need to change terminals, though. JU uses T4, OU T2 and VS T3.
DeleteOdd partnership but nice they got ex-Yu on their radar.
ReplyDeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteNo comment
DeleteSaying no comment is a comment.
DeleteOf course. That's what I meant.
DeleteWhat is the difference between an interline and codeshare?
ReplyDeleteAn interline flight is an agreement between airlines to coordinate passengers with an itinerary that uses multiple airlines, without having to check in again or deal with their baggage at the stopover. Codeshare agreements is where airlines operate flights on behalf of another airline, using their flight code.
DeleteGoogle:
DeleteInterline is a relationship between airlines which allows one airline sells services to a customer that are provided by another airline. Airlines use interline to sell itineraries that they would otherwise not be able to serve alone.
A codeshare agreement is an arrangement between two or more airlines to “share” the same flight. Meaning, a ticket can be purchased from one airline for a flight that is actually operated by another, partner airline.
“Croatia and Serbia are both underserved with direct connections to North America".
ReplyDeleteTrue unfortunately.
Well it is good to see JU addressing it.
DeleteWhile OU getting the most expensive 220's to continue providing feeder services to LH
DeleteGood. They need aircraft that will reduce fuel burn.
DeleteIt would be good if they were for free. But they are not for free and it will take some two decades or more, for their fuel burn savings to cover for their initial purchase/lease costs. If ever.
DeleteThey will also join Skyteam.
ReplyDeleteI think Virgin Atlantic also had an interline as far back as Jat Airways.
ReplyDeleteCan this be somehow related to Air Serbia's recently announced improvement of code share agreements in US?
ReplyDeleteVirgin Atlantic is UK based.
DeleteThis would be a good opportunity for JU and OU to consider Manchester. Apart from P2P traffic there is also a good opportunity to transfer onto Virgin's US network.
ReplyDeleteWhy should OU even consider MAN? They fly to FRA. That's where the World starts and ends.
DeleteOU used to fly seasonally Split to Manchester, until Kucko scrapped the flights.
DeleteStop finally with Kucko guilty for everything mantra. It's simply not true. Kucko was a puppet only. Bajic is puppet as well. Both only executing Misetic orders and continuing his criminal act of destroying OU by making it Cartel feeder, for personal benefits. Scrapping of MAN flights is just one of dozens of such decisions, and continuation of such criminal policy.
DeleteNo thanks. I'll stick to Istanbul if I have to transfer. Heathrow is a disaster: long lines and rude personnel.
ReplyDeleteThis is great. Makes it easier to avoid the hellhole that is Schiphol.
ReplyDeleteLAX was main destination from Beg via London with JU and Virgin,
ReplyDeletebut there is no connection anymore LAX LHR BEG without overnight in London,
so , with that situation, there is no future for better cooperation.
It is not easy to compete with a single itinerary & FF proposition of LH and TK. I haven't transfered at Frankfurt from a US flight, but I recall a looong walk on intra-european transfers. I think that JU is doing quite well on LHR with P2P traffic alone. There just isn't much more capacity. Perhaps regular 320 could help.
ReplyDeleteVirgin Atlantic doesn't even fly to Canada
ReplyDeleteThey used to serve YVR a few years back. Who knows what the future brings now that they have closed the Hong Kong route and have a harder time flying around Russia to reach Asia.
DeleteMaybe next destination to Virgin is Belgrade Airport.
ReplyDeletePerhaps from Manchester, Glasgow... 🛫🌐🛫😀✈