Virgin Atlantic touches down in Riyadh and expands network in India and South Korea

Virgin Atlantic has touched down in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking the airline’s first ever flying into the ever-expanding Kingdom. Joining other Virgin brand Virgin Mobile Saudi, the new daily service to King Khalid International Airport will capitalise on business expected from the ambitious Saudi Vision 2030. Riyadh is in growth mode, with an expanded downtown business district, F1 circuit, theme park, shopping and entertainment complexes. The city is also the perfect base to explore this vast country and in partnership with Saudia, flights can connect customers on to the UNESCO World Heritage sites of historical Jeddah, the gateway to Mecca, the second holiest city in Islam Medinah, Al Ula, Damman, the stunning Rock Art in Hima, as well as the luxurious resorts in the stunning Red Sea.

The market is expected to have a predominantly Saudi Arabian point of sale, which will see customers visiting the UK, as well as seamlessly connecting to twelve destinations throughout North America, on Virgin Atlantic and Delta networks, including Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Las Vegas, Seattle, Boston and Detroit.  Alongside business travellers, the route will serve the VFR market, which has seen a fivefold increase in Saudis living in the UK between 2000 and 2018.

Riyadh is also home to the airline’s SkyTeam partner, Saudia and this exciting partnership offers onward connections to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi in Pakistan. Virgin Atlantic also looks forward to deepening its partnership with Riyadh Air, when it takes to the skies in 2025. In September 2024, Virgin Atlantic signed a Strategic Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding, with the goal of introducing an array of benefits for customers traveling between London, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and beyond. The agreement, is the first stage in the strategic partnership that will enable both airlines to strengthen connectivity, expand their networks and enhance customer experience.

To ensure that the new Saudi customers feel at home onboard, Virgin Atlantic has tailored its award-winning experience creating a dedicated “Riyadh core crew” who have undertaken specialist training to become experts in Saudi culture.  Arabic coffee is served as part of the pre departure drinks service alongside a selection of dates in the Upper and Premium cabins, Halal meals are available throughout, and the Travellers Prayer also plays before the safety video.

New daily flights to Seoul, South Korea

South Korea is the world’s 13th largest economy and a global leader in high-tech manufacturing, R&D and home to thriving technology and beauty industries offering new business opportunities for Virgin Atlantic Cargo. Whilst the route will attract important corporate travel as well as visiting friends and relatives (VFR), the new service is expected to attract a predominantly leisure customer driven by the foody culture, amazing shopping and also the “Korean Wave”, which refers to the increasing worldwide popularity of South Korea’s pop culture encompassing music (K-pop), TV and films. Easy connections to Japan will attract tourists looking to explore exciting Tokyo, Kyoto temples close to Osaka, mud baths in Fukuoka, the beaches of Okinawa and the world-renowned powder snow in Hokkaido. These destinations offer unique new opportunities for Virgin Atlantic Holidays and Flying Club loyalty members, and offer new routing opportunities for our leisure travel trade partners.

This new service will create new East Asian connections, in collaboration with SkyTeam members Korean Air, Vietnam Airlines, China Eastern, China Airlines, Garuda Indonesia and Xiamen Airlines. Through Seoul Incheon, customers will be able to connect to 15 cities through codeshare agreements with Korean Air throughout South Korea, including the beautiful coastal city of Busan as well as Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo Haneda, Tokyo Narita, Fukuoka, Okinawa and Hokkaido in Japan, Sydney and Brisbane in Australia, Auckland in New Zealand, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang in Vietnam and Hong Kong.

Virgin Atlantic flights will take place on the Boeing 787-9 and will go on sale on 14th May 2025.

25 years of flying to India

2025 marks 25 years of flying to India and Virgin Atlantic is committed to strengthening its relationship with this dynamic destination. As the airline’s third largest market outside the UK and USA, Virgin Atlantic now offers five daily flights – one daily to Bengaluru, and twice daily to both Mumbai and Delhi – offering 1 million seats for customers each year, a 350% capacity growth since 2019. Alongside options for customers, the increase in flying is also a huge boost for cargo operations with additional capacity to support the movement of goods from the fashion, pharmaceuticals and tech sectors. With five daily services, Virgin Atlantic Cargo will offer over 40 million kg of space to and from India, a 336% increase in capacity versus 2019.

With streamlined schedules, Virgin Atlantic’s services offer seamless connectivity and a consistent long-haul experience for many customers choosing to connect via London Heathrow to and from destinations throughout North America including the airline’s new service to Toronto, as well as Seattle, San Francisco and New York JFK.

In addition, Virgin Atlantic’s partnership with IndiGo, India’s largest airline, offers connections to 36 destinations across India including Varanasi, Amritsar, Srinagar, Goa and Lucknow. Since the launch of the partnership in September 2023, the airlines have connected over 130,000 customers across codeshare services.

Virgin Atlantic continues to invest in its onboard experience for Indian customers. A recent recruitment of Indian based crew ensures that each flight to India will now average three Indian crew on every flight speaking Hindi and local dialects. UK based cabin crew have also undergone cultural training to better understand and meet the needs of our Indian customers. A variety of new dishes that reflect the rich culinary heritage of India including vegetable korma with almond basmati, saag masala and naan, masala dosa, medu wada, spinach uttapam, sambhar and curry leaf chutney are now available onboard and customers can enjoy a selection of Indian movies, TV series and Bollywood albums on the inflight entertainment.

Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer commented: “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. Building on new flying to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, five flights a day to India, as well as our seasonal leisure services to The Maldives and Dubai, we’re delighted to offer customers the opportunity to fly in style to a wide range of destinations.

“Providing seamless connections to our customers is a real focus and by leveraging the power of our commercial cooperation with Korean Air, Saudia, IndiGo and Riyadh Air, customers can trust Virgin Atlantic to connect them to where they need to be, enjoying a premium customer experience, delivered by our amazing crew.”

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The article Virgin Atlantic touches down in Riyadh and expands network in India and South Korea first appeared in TravelDailyNews International.