Virgin Atlantic has announced that three new routes will be added to its network from London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) with all new services due to commence ahead of the northern summer season 2025.
The trio of added destinations will see the airline serve Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the first time, as well as a return to Accra in Ghana and Toronto in Canada, both of which have previously been served and subsequently dropped by the carrier in the past.
For the first time in the British airline’s 40-year history, the carrier will launch a daily service to King Khalid International Airport (RUH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The move into this market fits with the Kingdom’s ambitious growth plans for business and tourism in the coming years under the guise of its Saudi Vision 203 program. This includes the construction of several new airports and establishing a second national carrier in the form of Riyadh Air.
According to a Virgin Atlantic statement, annual trade between the UK and Saudi Arabia was worth £17.1 billion in 2023 with an ambition to reach £30 billion of trade by 2030. Accordingly, air travel between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia is forecast to grow 24% between 2019-2035, a prediction that has clearly affected the airline’s route planning process.
Alongside the lucrative UK-to-Saudi Arabia business travel market, Virgin Atlantic will also be hoping to capitalize on the blooming ‘visiting friends and relatives’ (VFR) market between the two countries, which has seen a 500% increase in Saudis living in the UK between 2000 and 2018.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s 20th-largest economy and the largest in the Middle East with a population of 37 million. The carrier believes that the market will have a predominantly Saudi Arabian point of sale, which will see customers visiting the UK, but also using onward connecting services operated by both Virgin and its transatlantic partner Delta Air Lines connecting to twelve destinations throughout North America.
Flights between Heathrow and Riyadh will operate daily by the airline’s fleet of Airbus A330neos, of which the carrier currently has five with further aircraft on order, seven of which were ordered at the Farnborough Airshow 2024.
The first flight on the new route is scheduled to depart Heathrow on March 30, 2025. In addition to the aircraft’s capacity of 262 passengers, each flight will offer 30 tons of cargo capacity for companies looking to export and import goods, such as fresh produce and specialized goods such as pharmaceuticals, between Riyadh, the UK, and the United States.
Riyadh also happens to be the main operating base of fellow SkyTeam member, Saudia. Through the new flights from London and the partnership between the carriers, onward connections will be bookable to Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi, with further destinations within Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and China to follow as the airline continues to grow its strategic partnership with Saudia.
Return to Accra, Ghana
From May 2025, Virgin Atlantic will return to Ghana for the first time since the route was dropped by the airline in 2013. The West African city will be served daily from Heathrow with direct flights to Kotoka International Airport (ACC) in the nation’s capital, Accra, from May 2025.
According to Virgin Atlantic, the UK is home to the third largest Ghanaian diaspora in the world and the new service will be aimed at serving this currently underserved market. Additionally, around 10% of customers on the route are expected to connect through Heathrow onto Virgin Atlantic’s New York JFK service.
Flights to Accra begin on May 1, 2025, operated by 252-seat Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Like the flights to Riyadh, Virgin Atlantic will offer 30 tons of capacity on each flight.
Hello again, Toronto
The new routes to Riyadh and Accra follow the announcement made in June 2024 that the carrier would resume flights between London and Toronto, as previously reported by AeroTime. The airline’s first flights to Canada, the first in over a decade, commence on 30 March 2025, with direct flights between London Heathrow and Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ).
The new service will be operated by a variety of aircraft types and will additionally provide optimal connectivity for customers traveling to India via London, from the newly launched destination Bengaluru, alongside Mumbai and Delhi, which both operate twice daily.
“Riyadh and Accra join Toronto as new routes for summer flying in 2025 and we see huge opportunities to connect friends, relatives, and businesses with our new services,” said Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Virgin Atlantic. “We’re also delighted to build on our codeshare with SkyTeam partner Saudia, further strengthening connectivity in the region, and beyond, and bringing new benefits to our loyal customers.”
“We look forward to launching these new routes in 2025, introducing the iconic, inclusive Virgin Atlantic brand, award-winning experience, and our amazing people to new customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ghana, and Toronto,” he added.
