Virgin Atlantic expects additional 5-7% market share with second daily direct flight between Mumbai and London

UK-based Virgin Atlantic, which will add its second daily non-stop flight from Mumbai to London Heathrow Airport from October 27, expects a 5-7% increase in its market share on the route with the doubling of capacity, the airline’s chief commercial officer (CCO) Juha Jarvinen said.

In an interaction with CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of a media roundtable in Mumbai earlier this week, Jarvinen highlighted that the airline has seen growth in premium and business class cabins on the London-Mumbai-London route, prompting it to increase frequency to cater to the rising demand.

That aside, the British premium airline is looking to add two new destinations to its Indian network by 2030.

Founded by billionaire Richard Branson four decades ago, Virgin Atlantic made its debut in India in July 2000 and the country is now its third-largest market after the UK and the US.

Next year, it will mark 25 years of domestic operations. Virgin Atlantic in India competes with compatriot British Airways and domestic carrier Air India for direct passenger air traffic to London from India’s financial capital, in addition to Gulf carriers, which fly to the British capital via their respective hubs.

Read also: Indigo will soon have at least three new flights to London — See which cities they fly from

The airline currently connects London Heathrow to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru with a total of four daily flights – two from Delhi and one each from Mumbai and Bengaluru.

“Mumbai is the one city where we haven’t had a second daily flight yet, so that’s the key for us. What makes me even more confident (looking ahead to the launch of the second flight) is the growth we’ve seen in the premium and business class cabins, with 250% growth in premium class travel, both in seats and demand from India,” Jarvinen told CNBC-TV18.

Jarvinen noted that Virgin Atlantic is competing with British Airways and Air India for the 20-25% market share it holds of total non-stop passenger traffic on the Mumbai-London Heathrow route: “It is therefore critical for us to first defend our market share while at the same time striving for further growth.”

Read also: Microsoft outage: IndiGo, SpiceJet, Akasa and other global airlines’ billing systems down

According to him, around 1,000 passengers leave Mumbai for the UK on direct flights of three airlines and 2,000 for the US on direct flights of other airlines.

“In total, the market we are addressing is about 3,000 passengers, flying from Mumbai to the UK or the US (directly or indirectly) every day. And that is what we are competing for,” he said. “And of course, our aim is to gain more market share than we have,” said the Virgin Atlantic commercial director.

According to provisional data from the DGCA, Virgin Atlantic carried a total of 77,338 passengers to India and 92,840 passengers from India in the April-June (Q2) period of 2024 on its flights from the three Indian cities.

In comparison, British Airways carried 119,850 passengers to India and 141,136 out of India on its flights during the June 2024 quarter.

British Airways, however, flies from five Indian cities.

In terms of city-pair traffic, a total of 3,57,565 passengers were carried by various airlines (including those offering one-stop connectivity) to eight Indian cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Kochi, Ahmedabad and Goa (excluding traffic on domestic routes) from London in the April-June period, according to provisional DGCA data.

Of this, a major chunk of traffic reached Delhi and Mumbai, with 1,39,726 and 1,08,440 passengers, in Q2 2024, the data said.

Virgin Atlantic currently controls a 25% share with its single daily operations, a share that needs to be maintained, Jarvinen said, and was optimistic that the airline would “definitely try to gain some additional points of market share” with an additional daily flight from Mumbai.

“We can have a 5 to 7 point increase in market share at least because the total market share also includes indirect traffic,” he said.

The airline has been consistently offering a load factor of around 90% across all its routes in India, which is more than 10% higher than Virgin Atlantic’s network average for the entire airline, it noted.

“And this shows the strength of the Indian economy, the demand in the domestic market, especially for the premium cabins,” Jarvinen said, adding that we believe the unique appeal for us is the non-stop option to the UK in premium economy class.

Jarvinen noted that with the fifth flight (the second daily flight from Mumbai) the airline’s capacity on Indian routes will rise from the current 10% to 15%. “We are now also reaching more than 10% of the revenue share.”

Virgin Atlantic posted revenues of £3.1bn last year, according to its 2023 annual report.

It had a fleet of 43 aircraft, comprising 14 A330s, 12 A350 WXBs and 17 Boeing 787-9s, as of Sept. 5, according to live aircraft fleet tracking website Planespotter.net.

In India, the airline operates an Airbus 350 for one of its two daily flights from Delhi, while the rest of its flights are served by Boeing 787-9 wide-body aircraft.

“We believe there are more steps to be taken and more routes to be opened between the two countries,” he said, adding that the airline aims to launch at least two new destinations in India in the coming years.

A pact between the UK’s Ministry of Civil Aviation and Department of Transport in May this year allows for the operation of 14 additional weekly flights between Delhi/Mumbai and London Heathrow from the winter schedule, up from the current 56 flights per week.

Additionally, the three cities Virgin Atlantic flies to directly, the airline has a codeshare agreement with IndiGo, which gives Virgin Atlantic access to 36 cities, he said, adding, “Approximately 10% of our passengers connect with IndiGo flights for onward travel from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.”