Virgin Atlantic pulling out of London Gatwick, looking to cut 3000 jobs

atkinstogram

Mouseketeer
Joined
Dec 30, 2016
As per this BBC News article, VS are pulling out of LGW, cutting over 3000 jobs and ditching it's fleet of 747s in favour of the newer, more fuel efficient A350 and 787 metal.

Current plan is to move it's flight operations over to LHR, albeit presumably at a much reduced volume. What this means for the leisure routes, only time will tell. Like so many things in this infernal situation..
 
Why are airlines like Virgin and BA moving from Gatwick to Heathrow, rather than the other way around? Does Gatwick have higher fees etc?
 
Why are airlines like Virgin and BA moving from Gatwick to Heathrow, rather than the other way around? Does Gatwick have higher fees etc?

I don't think there's a huge amount of difference in fees, but Gatwick don't have the capacity that Heathrow does. Plus, Heathrow is more convenient for travellers, is easier to get to/from, etc.

Personally, I prefer Heathrow - it's a a nicer, more convenient airport for me, the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse is much nicer then LGW, and the drive-through check-in is ace. But I'm going to miss the 747 - my trip in September was scheduled to be upstairs on one - my first and last time upstairs in a 747.. 3 previous flights were scheduled for 747s and changed to different metal late in the day. It clearly was not meant to be.
 
But I'm going to miss the 747 - my trip in September was scheduled to be upstairs on one - my first and last time upstairs in a 747.. 3 previous flights were scheduled for 747s and changed to different metal late in the day. It clearly was not meant to be.
We thought we had secured our perfect flight out of Glasgow on 25th July: upstairs in the bubble with extra legroom economy seats. It was to be our first time in the bubble. Our return flight was also upstairs but with Premium economy. We have no idea whether we will be flying to Orlando on 25th July but we now know that it won’t be on a 747 😔
 


We thought we had secured our perfect flight out of Glasgow on 25th July: upstairs in the bubble with extra legroom economy seats. It was to be our first time in the bubble. Our return flight was also upstairs but with Premium economy. We have no idea whether we will be flying to Orlando on 25th July but we now know that it won’t be on a 747 😔

That was exactly our thinking as well. We scored great tickets in PE both ways, just over £800 each return, and it was finally up in the bubble with all the extra space..

We're still unsure if our September trip is going ahead. If it is, it'll be LHR on either a A350X or a 787-9. In which case I'll look to do Upper - the Upper Class Wing and Clubhouse are the perfect way to start a holiday.

Assuming we'll be allowed to fly into the US that is.
 
We are booked for 25th September LGW ORL We are 15 mins from Heathrow and 50 from Gatwick, so as long as we can actually fly it will suit us much better
 


Heathrow is more convenient for travellers, is easier to get to/from, etc.
Speak for yourself, I live in a town 50 miles to the south west of Heathrow yet there is no easy public transport link other than going all the way into central London by train, travelling by tube to Paddington for another train to Heathrow or taking the hated & expensive rail air bus link via Woking (waiting outside Woking station with my suitcases in the rain for a bus that is often late is not my idea of a pleasant start to a holiday). 2 hours or more for both - for a 50 mile trip! On the contrary, my trip to Gatwick is a very easy two train trips via Clapham Junction and it's cheaper and quicker too, despite being further away. It's like that for most of us on the south coast.

I flew into Heathrow Terminal 3 in December on a Virgin flight from Miami - T3 is outdated and horrible, it can take 20 mins just to walk to passport control from the gate, half it of without travelators. Old fashioned and depressing, it's the sort of place they stick down damaged carpet with tape. I was embarrassed that it was the first thing visitors to the country would see. Parking locally is more expensive and traffic is more congested too. For me Gatwick is a holiday airport with a more relaxed atmosphere. Heathrow T3 is just a depressing mess. I will miss Gatwick, I have had many happy memories there waiting for VS15 or 27.
 
Why are airlines like Virgin and BA moving from Gatwick to Heathrow, rather than the other way around? Does Gatwick have higher fees etc?
I think you’ll find fees at Heathrow are higher. But the key thing is Heathrow slots are highly coveted. If not used they are lost. They are worth lots of mone.

They will fly leisure routes from Heathrow, the slots do not have to be necessarily to X destination.
 
My BA flight on 30 June is still showing as leaving Gatwick, but we will see whether it transfers to Heathrow, or indeed, whether it leaves at all. I have delayed pre booking parking just in case, but I have an airport hotel booked.
From South Wales it doesn’t really make that much difference, whether we fly from Heathrow or Gatwick. At the moment a lot of BA aeroplanes are parked up at Cardiff airport... now that would be convenient.
 
My BA flight on 30 June is still showing as leaving Gatwick, but we will see whether it transfers to Heathrow, or indeed, whether it leaves at all. I have delayed pre booking parking just in case, but I have an airport hotel booked.
From South Wales it doesn’t really make that much difference, whether we fly from Heathrow or Gatwick. At the moment a lot of BA aeroplanes are parked up at Cardiff airport... now that would be convenient.
We have just been notified our BA flight from Gatwick on 30th June has been cancelled
 
Yes sorry to say it is the BA 2037. Was notified late last night and got straight on to them this morning and requested a refund rather than a voucher or deferment. In our case we were taking our 18 yr old son who is not likely to join us next year so didn't see the point of accepting a voucher
 
Yes sorry to say it is the BA 2037
That is sad and interesting, as you can still buy flights for that day on the BA website. My flight is still showing as scheduled on the BA app. Did they not offer to transfer you to another flight?
Do you have an on-site stay? Will you hold onto the resort reservation just in case WDW offers a rebooking ‘package’.

Sad news but maybe it is a relief to know.
 
No I saw the writing on the wall and asked our travel consultant to initiate cancellation 3 weeks ago. Disney were brilliant and refunded full amount and BA also totally accommodating and refunded. I think they are preferring for people to accept vouchers to defer to 2021 but like I said previously that is not an option for us. One your flight has been cancelled then you can request a refund but you need to call them to do so. Im feeling sad not to be returning this year but relieved not out of pocket so we can rebook at a date in the future. Good luck with your plans but best start preparing IMO
 
Why are airlines like Virgin and BA moving from Gatwick to Heathrow, rather than the other way around? Does Gatwick have higher fees etc?
Gatwick only has one active runway due to the other being largely a backup runway, and the fact that both runways cannot run in normal operation due to takeoff and landing vectors being too close to one another, so it effectively makes Gatwick a single-runway airport, while Heathrow has the advantage of having two runways, meaning that they can handle more flights an hour than Gatwick can.

The other issue is that the Open Skies Agreement has led to more liberalisation of Transatlantic routes, and the airlines that previously cannot run certain routes out of Heathrow (or operate out of Heathrow at all) can now finally use Heathrow. The end result was that the US airlines that previously had to use Gatwick moved out to be with their alliance stablemates at Heathrow, and Virgin gained more slots at Heathrow after years of protectionism that hampered their ability to expand there.
 
Just tried booking Virgin to Orlando february 2021 from Heathrow all flights able to book are not non stop transfers at different airports.
 

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