Virgin Atlantic Seattle to London New Route

Posted By Ben Nickel-D'Andrea on Mar 27, 2017 | 3 comments

Virgin Atlantic landed its inaugural flight from London Heathrow to Seattle at 3pm local time, and being fanboys of everything Virgin and always curious about new ways for us to get to the places we love, we decided we wanted to be there for the event and press release. Luckily, Virgin Atlantic was kind enough to have us as guests and we couldn’t have been more thrilled about it.

Virgin Atlantic will service this new route daily with a Boeing 787-9, the most fuel efficient aircraft manufactured here in Seattle. This will add over 40,000 more seats annually than the current service Delta operates between SEA and LHR. Their expected passenger load is around 150,000 passengers a year.

Richard Branson Virgin Seattle

Sir Richard Branson, President of Virgin Atlantic and founder of the Virgin Group, said: “Seattle has long been on my list of cities to fly to and I’m delighted to launch this new service. As the home to Microsoft, Amazon and of course Boeing, Seattle’s one of the fastest growing cities in the US and as a mecca for entrepreneurs and innovators, it’s a perfect fit for the Virgin Atlantic brand.”

Craig Kreeger, Virgin Atlantic’s CEO expressed enthusiasm for expanding Virgin’s presence on the West Coast as well as giving travelers the chance to experience their service between these two cosmopolitan cities, as well as flying a high tech aircraft equipped with WiFi, a top notch IFE system, cool mood lighting and a trendy social onboard bar.  

Virgin Atlantic 787-900, from Virgin.com

Virgin Atlantic, as well as their cousins Virgin Australia and soon to be defunct Virgin America, are known for their trendy style and exceptional service. When we had the chance to fly Virgin Australia from LAX to Brisbane in Australia, we were blown away by the experience. Customers flying Virgin Atlantic’s new service Upper Class can enjoy fully flat beds, chauffeur limo service, as well as its onboard bar. They also offer ‘uniquely British food and beverage service’, which more than anything got me curious to find out what they are, as I don’t think they mean black pudding and a shot of Pimm’s.

When flying from London to Seattle, Upper Class passengers will have access to their Clubhouse at Heathrow once you’ve been expedited through Virgin Atlantic’s own private security lines. Unfortunately, they will not have their own lounge out of Seattle, so you’ll have to make do with either of their partner’s lounges, Delta’s SkyClubs. Upon landing in Heathrow’s Terminal 3, you will be able to grab a quick shower and satiate your appetite at their Revivals Lounge before making it into the city.

For anyone who, like us, is extremely excited to have an awesome direct service being added to our favo(u)rite city across the pond, you can take advantage of flight VS106 departing Seattle 5:50pm, arriving in London Heathrow next day at 10:50am. On the way back, you can hop on flight VS105 leaving LHR 1:20pm and arriving in Seattle 3pm on the same day.

Anyone else looking forward to flying Virgin Atlantic Seattle to London?