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Virgin Atlantic’s New LAX-MAN Route Part of Larger Growth Plan

The launch of the new Virgin Atlantic route in May is a seasonal offering that could become permanent

June 23, 2019

Capitalizing on growing demand from the U.S. Virgin Atlantic is launching more service to Manchester this summer from U.S. gateways. New LAX-MAN service launched May 26 with thrice weekly service and now now offers as many as 14,000 seats a week directly from Manchester to the United States and the Caribbean.

“Manchester has changed a lot in recent decades and is a vibrant city now with a restaurant scene, art galleries and lots to do and it is truly the gateway to the north in the U.K.,” said Sir Richard Branson on a stopover in Los Angeles last week to celebrate the new flight. “We think this will become a very popular route.”

As the gateway to the north of the UK, Manchester is the third most visited city in the UK. The city is within a two-hour drive of Liverpool, best known as the birthplace of the Beatles, the Lake District and other tourist areas.

The new flight operates three days a week, on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, and will run until October 25 — at which time it will be evaluated and possibly made permanent. The flight departs LAX at 6:30 pm and arrives in Manchester at 12:55 pm. The Virgin gates are located at the airport’s Terminal 2, which is also the new home for Delta, which operates from both Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. The flight replaces Virgin Atlantic’s discontinued SFO-MAN service, using a 259-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft

Virgin Atlantic’s 2019 growth plan also includes an increase in summer-season Boston to Manchester service three times a week. Other new routes to watch from the British carrier include flights from Heathrow to Las Vegas and Tel Aviv and a London to Brazil’s Sao Paulo next year that will mark the airline’s first service to South America.