Virgin Atlantic to launch London Heathrow to Nassau

Virgin Atlantic have announced a new route from London Heathrow to Nassau with flights commencing 20 November 2021.

This is Virgin Atlantic's only route into The Bahamas and enlarges the long haul carrier's network to 8 Caribbean destinations - which has seen St Vincent Argyle added to its network in 2021. Additionally, this is the first new route announcement since the St Vincent announcement in November 2020.

Nassau currently has a direct flight to London Heathrow with British Airways, currently operating three times weekly. Virgin Atlantic would therefore provide competition on the route. Furthermore, Virgin Atlantic are the only second European airline to fly to Nassau and subject to flight timings, could offer connections at its London Heathrow hub on to other European cities via its codeshare partners including Amsterdam and Amsterdam.

Virgin Atlantic plan to operate two weekly flights between London Heathrow and Nassau for Winter 2021. Flight timings will be updated in due course. The route will be operated on Virgin Atlantic's Boeing 787-9 aircraft, featuring 258 seats including 31 Upper Class, 35 Premium and 192 economy (delight, class and light) seats.

Additionally, Virgin Atlantic will strengthen its Caribbean network further by adding flights onto its existing Barbados routes. Flights from London Heathrow will increase from 7 to 11 weekly flights and will face direct competition from British Airways (7 weekly) and indirect competition from British Airways (4 weekly from London Gatwick) and TUI Airways (1 weekly from London Gatwick). Virgin Atlantic will also increase its Manchester to Barbados flights from 3 to 5 weekly and will face direct competition from Aer Lingus (3 weekly) and TUI Airways (2 weekly).

Further Virgin Atlantic news expected in due course.

Edit: Since the timings were released, Virgin Atlantic have moved their Grenada, St Vincent and Tobago routes to be a tag from Barbados (replacing Antigua) and added a tag from the new Nassau route to continue onto Montego Bay, boosting the total number of flights to Montego Bay from London Heathrow.

Timings:

VS107 LHR 0935-1415 NAS 1530-1700 MBJ (Wed & Sat)

VS108 MBJ 1850-2025 NAS 2140-1035+1 LHR (Wed & Sat)

Sources:
Photo - Flight review: Virgin Atlantic B787-9 Upper Class – Business Traveller