Aboard Virgin Flights

In conversation with Stephen King, General Manager, India, Virgin Atlantic Airways

Is London still a hot spot with Indian travellers? What do you think pulls them there these days?

London is still one of the most popular holiday destinations for Indians travellers. With the growing middle class, more and more people are traveling abroad and London remains a favourite destination for Indians. On top of tourists, the city continues to attract corporate travellers, people visiting family and relatives and student traffic from metros as well as tier 2 and 3 cities.

London is a destination you can keep going back to. Beyond the theatre, art galleries, music, museums, sports and of course shopping, there are so many hidden parks, restaurants and sights to discover in and around the capital. The surrounding regions also have a lot to see. Fantastic countryside or great beaches are only an hour’s train journey from the centre. This year, of course, is an exciting year for London with the Olympics, Diamond Jubilee, and much more to experience.

Is MICE and business travel seen as a potential from India today or does VS still depend on leisure and ethnic travel?

We have had strong growth in MICE and it’s great to see that companies continue to invest in incentive travel. Our on-board product is perfect for group travel and we’re keen to grow in this area.

Though the slowdown in Europe is impacting

on confidence, we’re seeing business travel go from strength to strength. Whether it’s SMEs expanding in the UK or US or large MNCs. Corporate travellers love our Premium Economy and Upper Class cabins and we’ve seen more of them choose Virgin this year.

Does VS offer any special packages for MICE groups? Have you, for example, tied up with VisitBritain to promote MICE destinations in the UK?

The great thing about Virgin is that we’re just the right size to be able to offer extra support for groups travelling through the airport as well as competitive fares and award winning product.

What is your impression on the changed FDI ruling? Do you think VS would want to buy stake in a domestic carrier?

We’re focused on growing our business out of Delhi to London Heathrow and New York and as such we’re not currently looking at investing in India’s domestic carriers.

Are low cost carriers eating into Virgin business globally? Do you see it as a threat in this part of the world also?

Being a full service carrier, only operating long-haul flights, our USP has always been our unique product and service and we remain focused on customer service and innovation. This is across cabins from Upper Class to Premium Economy to Economy class passenger.

For example, knowing how important baggage is for Indian travellers, we are the only airline on Delhi-London route that offers two bags of 23 kg each to London in Economy. For passengers flying our unique cabin Premium Economy, we again have a very generous baggage allowance of three bags of 23 kg each.

We recently announced a £100 million investment to further enhance our Upper Class offering. From July, we’ll be bringing our brand new A330s to Delhi with amazing on-board entertainment and enhanced seats. Our Business Class passengers will be some of the first in the world to experience and enjoy our fantastic new Upper Class suite.

Low cost carriers are not having an impact on our business because we already deliver best value through good fares and a great product; and in fact, there aren’t any true low cost carriers competing against us on our routes.

India is working hard on its security and destination selling... Do you see an upward trend in visitors coming into India from the UK?

The country has so much to offer to the inbound visitor, from tourists to business travellers. You can see the growth and improving infrastructure everywhere you go in India. Interestingly, we’re experiencing an increase in travellers from the United States as well as from the UK.

Does Virgin have any expansion plans to India or other parts of this region?

We obviously fly from India’s National Capital and operate from other major economic centres in China, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. In each of these territories, we have strong relationships and good market share. Being a point to point airline has worked well for us, however, we continue to look for opportunities to further strengthen our presence.

As well as passengers flying with us to London, many also connect on our services to New York and the rest of the US.

Does VS take any green steps towards environment safety? Tell us about them.

Virgin Atlantic was the first airline to test a bio-fuel flight back in 2008. The intention was to provoke the industry to change, prove that there is a greener alternative to jet fuel and not just ignore the problem. Following our ground breaking initiative many other airlines have tested bio-fuels.

Continuing our leadership in this field, we announced last October a breakthrough in aviation fuel technology through our partnership with LanzaTech. This will see waste gases from industrial steel production being captured, fermented and chemically converted for use as a jet fuel. The revolutionary fuel production process recycles waste gases that would otherwise be burnt into the atmosphere as Carbon dioxide. We are hopeful of having a facility ready by early 2014 and within three years our flights to London from Delhi should be running on the new fuel.

The steel industry, alone, is able to deliver over 15 billion gallon of jet fuel annually, the potential is very exciting.

This new technology is sustainable and can be commercially produced at a cost comparable to conventional jet fuel and overcomes the complex land use issues associated with some earlier generation bio-fuels. Detailed analysis suggest that the fuel will produce around a 50 per cent saving in lifecycle carbon emissions. So, we are very excited about this development and looking forward to it.