Virgin Atlantic to launch New Services to Kingston, Jamaica

Virgin Atlantic is to expand its services to Jamaica later this year with the launch of new flights between London Gatwick and Kingston using Virgin’s 451-seat Boeing 747-400 aircraft.

The move comes after a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Air Jamaica and Virgin Atlantic, and follows Air Jamaica’s decision to cease operations between the UK and Jamaica so as to concentrate on its core routes. The new twice-weekly service will start on 30th October 2007 and be in addition to Virgin Atlantic’s twice-weekly services between Gatwick and Montego Bay. The new services will double Virgin’s capacity between London and Jamaica to 190,000 seats a year.

Kingston will be Virgin Atlantic’s 30th destination on its global network and the airline’s eighth Caribbean destination. Flight VS69 will leave Gatwick on Tuesday and Saturday mornings, arriving around lunchtime each day in Kingston, while flight VS70 will depart Kingston on Tuesday and Saturday evenings, arriving into Gatwick on Wednesday and Sunday mornings.

Virgin Atlantic will also launch a new codeshare with Air Jamaica, in which the airline will place its code on Virgin Atlantic flights operating to and from Kingston, as well as Montego Bay. In turn, Virgin Atlantic will add its VS code to internal, connecting Air Jamaica flights between Montego Bay and Kingston. The new codeshare agreement adds to the existing cooperation between Air Jamaica and Virgin Atlantic which includes links between the two carriers’ frequent flyer schemes, 7th Heaven and Flying Club.

Steve Ridgway, CEO of Virgin Atlantic, said, “We look forward to working more closely with Air Jamaica to develop the routes between London and Jamaica. We intend to offer a comprehensive network of connections between our three UK airports - Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester - and Jamaica via our US and Caribbean gateways, and in future we will look to build up connecting traffic via Jamaica to other points in the Caribbean region.

“We also intend to increase the frequency to Montego Bay as soon as possible, as we take delivery of new aircraft including the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner which we recently ordered.”

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