Virgin Atlantic Announces Seasonal Route From Cape Town To London Heathrow

Route Commences October 2020

Flights Go On Sale From 18 February 2020

Virgin Atlantic has announced the reintroduction of Cape Town to London Heathrow with the seasonal service taking to the skies from October 2020 onwards. The route will be adding over 80 000 seats between Cape Town and London.

The seasonal service launches on 25th October and will complement the existing daily A350 service flying between Johannesburg and London Heathrow. The VS478 will operate as a night flight departing Heathrow at 16:20 arriving into Cape Town at 05:55 whereas the inbound, the VS479, will depart at 08:00 landing later that day at 18:00.

The Cape Town flights will be operated on Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787-9 aircraft, offering customers the airline’s award-winning Upper Class, Premium and Economy Light, Classic and Delight cabins. Virgin Atlantic offers a full onboard service in each of its cabins, providing complimentary food, drink and over 300 hours of entertainment across films, TV and music channels. All the airlines 787-9 are fully equipped with Wi-Fi, allowing customers to stay connected throughout their flight. 

Liezl Gericke, Head of Africa, Middle East and India, at Virgin Atlantic commented: “I am thrilled of the reintroduction of this popular route; it will make it even easier for our customers to travel for business and leisure between South Africa and the United Kingdom – as well as creating additional cargo capacity for the route. The daily service will not only enhance a vital link between Cape Town and the UK’s capital, but it also provides seamless connections via Heathrow to Europe and North America”.

Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane says:

“South Africa has set an ambitious target of reaching 21 million international tourist arrivals by 2030. To this end the Department of Tourism has embarked on a number of programmes aimed at positioning South Africa as a destination of choice for tourists. Fortunately, South Africa is endowed with diverse tourist attractions that includes unspoiled wilderness and safaris, beautiful landscapes, beautiful sandy beaches and lush winelands around Stellenbosch and Paarl.

With such a unique bouquet of tourism attractions, South Africa is uniquely positioned to offer authentic and memorable tourist experiences. However, presented with the many choices of holiday destinations, travellers are more inclined to choose destinations with ease of access especially air access. It is within this context that we welcome Virgin Atlantic’s decision to reintroduce flights from London to Cape Town.

United Kingdom is one of our key tourist source market and we believe that an additional direct flight route from this market will hugely contribute towards us reaching our 2030 goal as it will transport more tourists to our shores.”

­­­new services on sale from 18th February 2020. Visit www.virginatlantic.com for more information and to book.