Virgin Atlantic Announces Launch Date For New Non-Stop Flights From London to Seoul, South Korea, in Clever Deal For Major Rival

Virgin Atlantic has announced the launch date for a new non-stop flight from London to Seoul, South Korea, with a daily service expected to commence on March 29, 2026.

The airline will become the only British carrier to offer non-stop flights to South Korea after British Airways abandoned the country at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

Virgin Atlantic could face an uphill battle to win business from South Koreans who generally prefer to fly with local airlines, but the carrier has decided to launch the route as part of a clever deal with fellow SkyTeam member Korean Air.

The Backstory Behind Virgin Atlantic’s Seoul flight

The origins of Virgin Atlantic’s new route can be traced back to November 2020, when Korean Air reached a merger deal with its local rival, Asiana. The problem, however, is that the deal raised serious antitrust issues in several jurisdictions because Korean Air would effectively own a monopoly on routes to Seoul.

In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority opened an inquiry into the proposed merger and told Korean Air that it would need to develop a plan to address the glaring monopoly issue.

By 2022, Virgin Atlantic had announced plans to join the SkyTeam airline alliance, which created an obvious solution for Korean Air monopoly dilema. By ceding a pair of slots at London Heathrow and Seoul Inchoen to Virgin Atlantic, it could quell concerns at the CMA that its merger with Asiana would create “higher prices and a reduced quality of service for passengers”.

Sure enough, Virgin Atlantic came to the rescue of Korean Air, and in early 2023, the CMA approved the merger with Asiana on the condition that Virgin Atlantic launched the flights to Seoul to a specific timeline.

In February, however, the CMA approved a final extension on when Virgin Atlantic could launch its new route to Seoul. The extension was only approved after Virgin Atlantic provided a legal binding assurance that the route would launch at the start of the summer 2026 flying season.

Virgin Atlantic decided not to address the CMA’s involvement in its decision to launch flights to Seoul.

Saudia Arabia is Calling For Virgin Atlantic

The announcement came on the same day that Virgin Atlantic touched down in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for the first time as part of another deal with SkyTeam through Saudia Airlines and the yet-to-be-launched airline Riyadh Air.

Virgin Atlantic is banking on the success of Saudi Arabia’s incredibly ambitious ‘Vision 2030’ project to transform the Kingdom into a luxury tourism hotspot, although the airline admits, for now at least, that it expects most passengers to be Saudi nationals traveling to London and beyond.

The new route to Seoul will be operated on one of Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners which feature uncompetitive herringbone Business Class seats in Upper Class. The new service to Riyadh, however, is operated on one of the carrier’s newer Airbus A330s.

“Whilst Virgin Atlantic has long been known as the carrier of choice across the Atlantic and transatlantic travel remains core to our business, we are incredibly excited to expand our network in the east with the announcement of new services to Seoul starting in March 2026,” commented Juha Jarvinen, Virgin Atlantic’s chief commercial officer.

“Building on new flying to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, five flights a day to India connecting North America customers from key gateways including our new route from Toronto, we’re delighted to offer customers the opportunity to fly in style for business or meet friends and relatives,” Jarvinen continued.

Matt’s Take

Last September, when Virgin Atlantic first announced it planned to launch flights to Riyadh, I pointed out that it felt like the airline was “throwing darts at a map to see where it can add routes” because we’ve heard so many announcements about new destinations and routes, and not all of them have happened.

For example, on the same day that Virgin Atlantic announced the service to Riyadh, it also said that it wanted to fly to Accra, Ghana, by this summer. That route, however, has been delayed.

Flights to São Paulo, Brazil, were also announced, then delayed, and then cancelled, while Virgin Atlantic said it was forced to axe flights to Shanghai due to the closure of Russian airspace. The airline has also exited several other markets in the last few years, including the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.