Virgin Atlantic will soon relaunch its shortest flight at just 40 minutes in duration and covering a mere 190 nautical miles from London Heathrow to Brussels.
The Richard Branson-founded airline is not, however, about to try to get into the business of resuming short-haul flights (anyone remember the carrier’s ill-fated Little Red venture?) but is instead going to fly to Brussels as a freighter-only service.
Explaining the decision, the airline said on Friday that its Airbus A330 and A350 aircraft that will operate the route will allow it to transport up to 50 tons of time-critical cargo like perishables and pharmaceuticals.
These time-critical goods are currently transported from London Heathrow to European hubs by road, so Virgin Atlantic is hoping that it can appeal to companies willing to pay a little extra to get their goods in and out of Europe that little bit quicker.
The cargo service is, however, only going to be running for a short time, starting on October 27, 2024, and ending on March 29, 2025, which coincides with the airline industry’s winter season in the northern hemisphere.
Of course, the winter season is typically quieter for most airlines, especially leisure-dominated carriers like Virgin Atlantic, and that means that without this service, the airline could have airplanes sitting idle and not making money.
As One Mile at a Time also points out, Virgin Atlantic could be launching this new cargo-only service in order to retain takeoff and landing slots at London Heathrow.
Because the London hub is so constrained in capacity, airlines are only allowed to operate flights to Heathrow if they are assigned a timed slot. In order to stop airlines from hoarding slots that they don’t then use, regulators have a ‘use it or lose it’ rule.
During the pandemic, the ‘use it, or lose it’ rules were relaxed but even then some airlines started operating so-called ‘ghost flights’ with no passengers just to make sure they were operating enough flights to retain their slots.
Although Virgin Atlantic hasn’t commented on any ulterior motives for its new Brussels freighter service, it sure looks like the airline might have dreamt up the idea to comply with slot-based rules.
Juha Jarvinen, Virgin Atlantic’s chief commercial officer, explained that the airline has previously operated freighter flights between London Heathrow and Brussels during the pandemic. Jarvinen says these flights were a success, so why not try it again?
If the Brussels cargo flights are due to Virgin Atlantic needing to operate flights to retain its slots, then this seems like a reasonable solution compared to operating ghost flights, which environmental lobbyists oppose.
Just don’t expect to be able to fly as a passenger with Virgin Atlantic to Brussels. No tickets are going to be sold for passengers on this route.
