Airline Gives Air Freight Customers Another Route Between US and UK

UK – US – Virgin Atlantic Cargo is giving customers in the UK a wider choice of services in 2017 with the launch of a new daily service from London to Seattle and extra flights from Manchester to the US. The Seattle service will start on March 26 and the company has high hopes that the air freight market will be quick to take up the opportunity to use it. John Lloyd, Senior Vice President, Cargo at Virgin Atlantic said:

“Seattle is in the top 15 import/export markets for cargo between the UK and U.S. and the level of interest from customers since we announced plans to start the route last year indicates we can gain a strong share of the market. It is clearly an important and growing origin, transit and destination point for cargo as demonstrated by the 10.2% increase in tonnage in 2016 through Seattle-Tacoma. It is a great addition to our U.S network.

“2016 was a challenging year for everyone so we are very encouraged by the growth in our volumes from the UK to the U.S, which were boosted by particularly strong increases on our routes to Atlanta, Miami, New York JFK and San Francisco. With the launch of Seattle and our commitment to customers in the North of England we are optimistic of further growth in 2017.”

Manchester is also getting a boost from Virgin’s 2017 summer schedule. The airline launches direct Manchester-San Francisco operations three times a week from 28 March and a day later commences a new twice-weekly service from the airport to Boston. At the end of May, these new routes will be joined by the start of daily Manchester-New York JFK flights.

April will also see the launch of a new weekly service from London Gatwick to Varadero in Cuba. With 12 US gateways already, Virgin claims it provides some 30% of transatlantic cargo capacity and the airline saw tonnage from the UK to the US increase by 8.4% year-on-year in 2016.