Virgin Atlantic resumed its operations to the island of Tobago after nearly two years yesterday. The British carrier’s Airbus A330-300 hopped across the Atlantic Ocean to restart the service, which will fly twice weekly out of London Heathrow.
A vibrant destination
With plenty of sun and sea, Tobago has heavily relied on tourism over the years. It saw hundreds of thousands of yearly visitors each year before the pandemic. In 2019, the country witnessed 480,000 foreign tourists. However, like many island communities, the global health crisis has rocked several industries amid the ongoing social and economic challenges.
Earlier this month, Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Secretary of Tourism and Transportation, Tashia Grace Burris, highlighted that it is her department’s aim to welcome 100,000 international visitors in the quickest time frame possible. Following this announcement, Virgin Atlantic’s fellow UK powerhouse British Airways returned to Tobago on January 10th. Now, Virgin has followed suit.
Yesterday, we touched down in Tobago for the first time since March 2020 🇹🇹
We are thrilled to be returning twice weekly from @HeathrowAirport to this incredibly beautiful Caribbean island.
Will you be joining us? pic.twitter.com/P4UXbOPJpi
— virginatlantic (@VirginAtlantic) January 30, 2022
Widebody adventures
The service departs London on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Flight VS177 leaves Heathrow at 09:00 before landing at Tobago’s A. N. R. Robinson International at 17:00 via a stopover in Barbados. Flight VS178 then departs at 18:50 to land in the UK’s capital at 10:00 the next day, following another stopover in Barbados.
Virgin will be glad that its A330 aircraft are being deployed on another route across the Atlantic. According to ch-aviation, the airline has eight of its A330-200s in its fleet active.
Registration G-VNYC was the plane that performed the first flight to Tobago in almost two years. The aircraft was delivered to the airline in June 2012 and is formatted with 183 Economy Delight, Classic and Light seats, 48 Premium, and 31 Upper Class seats.
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A welcome start to the year
Tobago is the smaller of the islands in the country of Trinidad and Tobago. Scarborough is the island’s main city, on the southern coast and near the airport. Overall, Virgin is thrilled to add Caribbean destinations back to its schedule.
“We are thrilled to be able to restart our much-loved services between London Heathrow and Tobago. With delicious food, amazing music and stunning views, we know our customers will love exploring this unique island destination,” Virgin Atlantic CCO Juha Jarvinen shared in a company statement.
“The Caribbean is the linchpin of Virgin Atlantic’s leisure portfolio and we’ve recently introduced a number of new destinations to our flying programme, including The Bahamas, St Lucia and St Vincent and The Grenadines. We can’t wait to fly our customers safely to our amazing Caribbean destinations throughout 2022.”
Virgin Atlantic will be glad that this leisure service is back in action. The airline will be looking forward to more resumptions this year as the long-haul sector continues to recover.
What are your thoughts about Virgin Atlantic resuming flights to Tobago? What do you make of this return of the route? Let us know what you think of the overall initiative in the comment section.
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