Virgin Atlantic has announced its newest long haul destination, with flights commencing next fall. I suppose it’s not terribly surprising, though it kind of reflects the SkyTeam carrier’s challenging position in the market…
In this post:
Virgin Atlantic adds London to Phuket route
As of October 18, 2026, Virgin Atlantic will launch a new 3x weekly flight between London Heathrow (LHR) and Phuket (HKT). The airline will use the Boeing 787-9 for its route to Thailand, and it will operate with the following schedule:
VS214 London to Phuket departing 12:00PM arriving 7:10AM (+1 day)
VS215 Phuket to London departing 9:20AM arriving 4:00PM
The 6,158-mile flight will operate eastbound on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, in a flight time of 12hr10min, and westbound on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Mondays, in a flight time of 13hr40min. The flight should become bookable as of November 26, 2025.
Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners are configured with 258 seats, including 31 business class seats, 35 premium economy seats, and 192 economy class seats. While the cabins of these planes will get (a much needed) overhaul, that project is only starting in 2028.
This will be Virgin Atlantic’s only route to Thailand, and it’ll also be the only nonstop flight between London Heathrow and Phuket (TUI Airways has a seasonal flight from London Gatwick).
Here’s how Virgin Atlantic Chief Commercial Officer Juha Jarvinen describes this:
“We’re thrilled to introduce our new direct service to Phuket, giving our customers a flavour of one of Southeast Asia’s most captivating destinations. As well as making the trip more convenient, they can enjoy exploring Thailand’s unique heritage, natural beauty and delicious cuisine. We can’t wait for our customers to experience our trademark hospitality on their next unforgettable journey.”
My take on Virgin Atlantic’s Thailand flights
Virgin Atlantic’s new route between London and Phuket really sums up the challenging market position that Virgin Atlantic constantly finds itself in. The airline is 49% owned by Delta, so the carrier’s biggest focus is on its transatlantic joint venture with Delta and Air France-KLM.
But aside from that, Virgin Atlantic can’t seem to figure out what to do. There’s a certain irony to Virgin Atlantic’s new longest route also being a leisure route that’s not necessarily known for being very high yielding, where the airline is promoting how you can book package holidays starting at £999 per person. I mean, TUI is the only other airline that bothers to operate in the market, and that says a lot.
Virgin Atlantic’s only other route to the eastern part of Asia is a service to Seoul Incheon (ICN) that’s launching in the spring of 2026. While that flight will feed into SkyTeam partner Korean Air’s network, it’s likely only happening because Virgin Atlantic was literally given the slot pair for the route, as part of a concession for the Korean Air and Asiana merger.
So it says something when the airline can’t make Hong Kong, or Singapore, or Tokyo work, but thinks its best bet is Phuket. As lucrative as Heathrow can be, it’s really tough to be in the number two spot at an airport (behind British Airways), while lacking short haul connectivity.
Bottom line
As of the fall of 2026, Virgin Atlantic will launch seasonal flights between London and Phuket. This will be Virgin Atlantic’s longest route, and it’ll also be the carrier’s only service to Southeast Asia. Obviously there’s seasonal demand between London and Phuket, though one would assume the yields aren’t great, between the competitive landscape and the length of the flight.
But yeah, this isn’t really surprising. Aside from the North America joint venture with Delta, Virgin Atlantic otherwise seems heavily focused on leisure destinations (or markets where it can get subsidies or some other upside).
What do you make of Virgin Atlantic launching Phuket flights?
Very lazy reporting. Virgin have never operated to SIN.
Heathrow is giving away free slots on new route startups that are not served by a direct point to point flight.
I would have rather see Virgin flying to places like Jakarta ( currently not served from London ) with an onward shuttle to Denpasar.
well, there you go right there.
VS can pick up slots.
Ben clearly never thought of that angle.
With these times, it may connect half decently to/from a few East coast routes.
This route makes perfect sense actually. Thailand is almost always the most popular long haul winter destination for the UK market, particularly over Christmas. All the direct flights to BKK always fill up months in advance so the yield of these HKT flights being pretty high. The UK is long overdue a direct HKT service from a scheduled carrier so I can see this being a very successful route.
"BKK always fill up months in advance so the yield of these HKT flights being pretty high"
What does filling up in advance to Bangkok, have to do with yields to Phuket?
You keep this narrative up of doom and gloom for VS at LHR. What would you like them to do ? It’s not as if they can suddenly start short haul with no slots tbh does that even make money. They are fighting a decade old BA priority at the hub. Shake things up and be a different maybe things would change with a 3rd runway but for now there always treated second best.
There may well be some money to be made flying mid-haul to places like IST or DSS, but they seem to be copying the DL model which doesn't include any strategy to attract clientele based outside of their own home country.
It's a leisure route; similar to operating LHR-MLE. Yeah, they could have chosen BKK, if they were thinking combination business-leisure, but let's be honest, more tourism from UK to Thailand than business. I don't think this is a bad idea; hope it works out well for them.
Speaking of Thailand, didn't UA820 just fly LAX-HKG-BKK with their 789? (Uh oh, Tim Dunn...)
If looking to fly SkyTeam from Europe to Phuket, this route sounds like a decent one-stop option even as it includes the hassle of transit passenger security screening at LHR airport.
Agreed. As much as Ben is critical, I think it makes plenty of sense for leisure travelers, some of whom do wanna pay for 'nice' things, like Upper Class, lie-flat, avoiding LHR and BKK.
Air France commences 3 weekly flights from Paris to Phuket at the end of November.
Two connections- unless you are starting from a European Skyteam hub which isn't MAD or OTP.
Many airports feed LHR and this should work from airports that serve LHR with flights operated by VS and by VS interline agreement partners even if interline partners are not codeshare and SkyTeam airlines.
An airline with 'atlantic' in its name flying to Thailand reminds me of Asia Atlantic Airways.
I thought GRU or GIG would make more sense to VS for a non US destination, especially with delta being friends with LATAM for regional connectivity
They tried twice and canceled both times before they started. I was skeptical the second time. I don´t think they´ll try again till Brazil turns around economically and maybe not even then.
LATAM fly the GRU route, no reason for VS to compete against them.
Who amongst us hasn't faced a struggle and just said, "Awww, Phuket!"
I have a different take. Phuket represents an opportunity on an under-served route to a destination that would be especially desirable in warmer months. It all comes down to marketing and offering attractive packages with hotels. Singapore or Tokyo don't make as much sense because those markets are already saturated out of LON with multiple frequencies on several airlines. The Achilles heal for SkyTeam is in Asia, so connectivity will remain a problem there. Instead,...
I have a different take. Phuket represents an opportunity on an under-served route to a destination that would be especially desirable in warmer months. It all comes down to marketing and offering attractive packages with hotels. Singapore or Tokyo don't make as much sense because those markets are already saturated out of LON with multiple frequencies on several airlines. The Achilles heal for SkyTeam is in Asia, so connectivity will remain a problem there. Instead, maybe VA should consider a focus on the Middle East--going back to TLV now that there's a ceasefire and expanding in Saudi Arabia, e.g. a nonstop from Jeddah.
Choosing to fly someplace where nobody else does rather than in a field of intense competition is a sign of strength, not weakness.
Nothing screams "strong" than avoiding competing against other airlines (sarcasm)
VS’ TATL network is more competitive than airline.
In fact, tell us on what other markets VS has a monopoly
Every other VS competitor has far more monopoly markets than VS.
The notion that adding a monopoly market is a sign of weakness is delusionally laughable
When VS does it "is a sign of strength, not weakness."
When UA does it "announcement was weak and just adding dots"
Only delusional Tim can make statements like this.
I didn't say that UA's addition of Nuuk or Mongolia had anything to do with strength or weakness.
I did say, accurately that UA is making the decision to fly seasonal less than daily service on narrowbodies INSTEAD OF building its domestic network where 737s could also be used.
VS' 787s cannot be used to fly domestic routes.
The principle remains that starting a route where one has an advantage is not a sign of...
I didn't say that UA's addition of Nuuk or Mongolia had anything to do with strength or weakness.
I did say, accurately that UA is making the decision to fly seasonal less than daily service on narrowbodies INSTEAD OF building its domestic network where 737s could also be used.
VS' 787s cannot be used to fly domestic routes.
The principle remains that starting a route where one has an advantage is not a sign of weakness regardless of who does it.
I would not expect you to grasp the concept but it is real nonetheless.
?? Phuket is served by around 80 airlines. Apart from Virgin and Air France, from Europe you can fly on Finnair, LOT, Singapore, Thai, Qatar, Cathay Pacific and emirates via their respective hubs.
It's not a terrible idea. BA uses an ancient 777 that is falling apart on their LGW-BKK service and it seems to fill up easily.
People don't want to fly to the U.S. northeast in winter so why not send the plane somewhere people do?
BA operates reg G-YMMA, C, F and D. Indeed they are around 25 years old however not “ falling apart “.
"BA uses an ancient 777 that is falling apart "
Most of BA's 777s have brand new interiors. How are they "falling apart?"
Gatwick based planes have the old interiors.
Any level of VS expansion to anywhere in the world other than North America is very welcome, but as Ben points out this is going to leave them with a really odd East Asian presence. If you'd asked me 15 years ago to guess what 2 East Asian airports VS would be serving in the future there's no way I'd have said ICN and HKT...
Can you explain what’s up with the image of the vs plane you used for post pic - ai?
@ Applesa -- The featured image? It's a real pic I took at Heathrow T3. At some gates you can only see part of the plane, and I thought it actually looked kind of cool.
Cargo door and the sloping of the plane around it, door not aligning etc - looks off , first thing I noticed
I swear that A.I. has melted some of you people's brains.
There's nothing off about that picture at all.
So negative. Non-US focus is more than just leisure or stretegic - what about Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Johannesburg, Riyadh?
The UK to Thailand market is extremely under-served with direct connectivity. Only Thai Airways and Eva operate LHR - BKK with load factors in the high 90's through high season (winter). It's one of the fastest growing holiday destinations as many travellers are demanding more from their vacations.
I'm actually delighted to see a...
So negative. Non-US focus is more than just leisure or stretegic - what about Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Johannesburg, Riyadh?
The UK to Thailand market is extremely under-served with direct connectivity. Only Thai Airways and Eva operate LHR - BKK with load factors in the high 90's through high season (winter). It's one of the fastest growing holiday destinations as many travellers are demanding more from their vacations.
I'm actually delighted to see a new route starting that isn't the US or Caribbean (who is even still vacationing in the Caribbean these days). I think this will be a great addition to the Virgin Network.
@ Sharon Kelly -- The Riyadh route is about subsidies. And the India routes *are* largely about connectivity to & from the United States, given Delta's lack of nonstop flights to the country, so they're also about the joint venture.
I'm not saying the new route isn't cool, I'm just saying it's interesting how leisure oriented Virgin Atlantic's non-North America flying is.
I'm not saying people can't look forward to this route. I'm just saying...
@ Sharon Kelly -- The Riyadh route is about subsidies. And the India routes *are* largely about connectivity to & from the United States, given Delta's lack of nonstop flights to the country, so they're also about the joint venture.
I'm not saying the new route isn't cool, I'm just saying it's interesting how leisure oriented Virgin Atlantic's non-North America flying is.
I'm not saying people can't look forward to this route. I'm just saying it's interesting to see a network, non-LCC serve HKT but not HND, HKG, SIN, etc. Isn't that fair enough?
Not forgetting the business ties, as well as a huge Indian diaspora in the UK for the flights by VS to India.
Virgin will look to sell a large bunch of these seats to HKT via Virgin Holidays, hence the plan to launch next year. Growth of tourism from the UK to Thailand is still increasing and flights in our Winter tend to be pretty full so would be very plausible for VS to take...
Not forgetting the business ties, as well as a huge Indian diaspora in the UK for the flights by VS to India.
Virgin will look to sell a large bunch of these seats to HKT via Virgin Holidays, hence the plan to launch next year. Growth of tourism from the UK to Thailand is still increasing and flights in our Winter tend to be pretty full so would be very plausible for VS to take a slice of.
Of course, will it be pulled like (I think) GIG was before it ever starts is another question.
"The Caribbean welcomed approximately 34.2 million international visitors in 2024, a 6.1% increase from 2023 and a 6.9% rise above 2019 pre-pandemic levels, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO). This marks the second consecutive year that tourism has exceeded pre-pandemic figures.
The Caribbean cruise industry experienced a significant rebound, with 33.7 million cruise visits in 2024, a 10.3% increase over 2023, and a 10.9% increase over pre-pandemic levels."
"The Caribbean welcomed approximately 34.2 million international visitors in 2024, a 6.1% increase from 2023 and a 6.9% rise above 2019 pre-pandemic levels, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO). This marks the second consecutive year that tourism has exceeded pre-pandemic figures.
The Caribbean cruise industry experienced a significant rebound, with 33.7 million cruise visits in 2024, a 10.3% increase over 2023, and a 10.9% increase over pre-pandemic levels."
Europe-India flights are getting ridiculously cheap, and VS would suffer low yields in economy class. I see sub-$300 fares between Eurooe and India even for last minute economy class flights. These are 25+ year record low prices I now see.
I sort of agree... There's a plethora of true luxury properties in the Phuket area (including the islands), and not having to connect via BKK is highly appealing. Especially over the festive period with very high rates, I could see this working well. Southeast Asia is booming with requests right now.
3 flights a week bringing Brits into Phuket. What could go wrong with that combo?
Santastico, thanks for the grin.
“What could go wrong” you ask?
Since you mention it, the situation could actually be much worse don’t you know. It could be three plane loads of Americans, French, Russians or even worse Germans, yes?