Premium route for virgin atlantic

David Hodges, Country Manager—India, Virgin Atlantic, shares that the airline will be getting a new aircraft with an increased number of premium seats for customers on its Delhi-London route.

2019, claims David Hodges, Country Manager—India, Virgin Atlantic, is going to be an exciting year for the airline. “We are introducing a new A350 aircraft with an all new design that would be servicing our New York route. There will also be some exciting changes for Delhi. We are getting a new aircraft with a huge number of premium seats as well as a fully refurbished upper cabin. A new Business Class onboard the A330 is also coming to Delhi in the next few months,” he shared. Virgin Atlantic’s partnership with Jet Airways turned out to be successful, especially for the Mumbai-London route on the Indian full- service carrier. “Delhi is performing very well; the year overall was also positive for us,” Hodges said. The airline is set to conduct interesting campaigns throughout the year. Hodges

We have on board an amazing customer proposition, which continues to be very popular, whether it is the Bollywood films or the best Indian food or the local crew

further said, “Catering to the fundamentals of what really excites Indian passengers, we will continue to showcase what Virgin has to offer. We have on board an amazing customer proposition, which continues to be very popular, whether it is the Bollywood films or the best Indian food or the local crew. Among the variety of aspects we’re pushing in the Indian market, we are looking to increase our local crew on board from Delhi this year.” For the MiCE segment, the airline wants to explore more. “We are an airline which doesn’t have the highest capacity on the Delhi route; so we have certain limits on how much of MiCE we can accommodate. However, this is something which we are looking to expand this year, particularly as we grow our premium capacity by 37 per cent from the summer season as there is a real opportunity in that cabin. In fact, we have witnessed the growth of conference facilities across Delhi, especially Aerocity, the market immensely from an international perspective,” he said. Elaborating on sharing a cordial relationship with the travel trade, Hodges explained, “We want to make sure that it’s a win- win situation where the travel trade is also very successful in this market. We’ve got some great partners and I think it’s an exciting time for all of us in this sector.” Even students are a major segment for Virgin Atlantic, and currently Hodges is reviewing the airline’s student offer.