Virgin Atlantic posts strong load factor on Lagos route

• Airline chief urges strong regional connectivity for Nigerian carriers

Virgin Atlantic’s Chief Commercial Officer, Juha Jarvinen has expressed the carrier’s commitment to continue to service the London-Lagos route.

The airline has equally maintained a strong load factor of between 85 and 90 per cent on the lucrative destination.

Jarvinen spoke to Aviation Metric at a recognition breakfast with travel agents in Lagos last week in Lagos.

He advised Nigerian carriers to help solve the problem of air connectivity in the West African region and Africa as a whole by strengthening regional connectivity.

He noted that what Nigeria should do is to make sure that there is strong regional connectivity to make sure that Nigeria and the other countries in the region can benefit from working closer together and making sure that the local economy becomes stronger.

He said,” We have been flying to Nigeria for 23 years to do another round of appreciation for the importance of Nigeria to us and it is one of our top-performing routes in our network. As a challenger and as a fighter in changing the name of the game in the aviation industry. We are still living to that DNA. We give the best service to customers. That makes a difference to other airlines. Yes, it has been a difficult times lately in Nigeria like the whole world has been going through challenging times, we want to show off our commitment to Nigeria.”

“We have been recording high load factor, demand is strong and we are on 85-90 mark. We have strong performance on the route. We want to fly with our best product; that is A350-1000 on the route and that is what we are committed to and that is what Nigerians deserve-the best product”.

“That is what we are planning to have in the future as well and the big part of the demand is to London as much as we can offer connectivity to places like New York and other US destinations. That is really what we are committed to make sure that we have the best option for Nigerians travelling to London and beyond.”

Buttressing the airline’s  23 years of operations to Nigeria and 40 years of existence as an airline, said his carrier is very competitive on the Lagos-London route because of the fiercely competitive market, hinting that they have the right offering in the market.

‘But of course, we need to always continue evolving it and we explore what growth opportunities there could be. Besides having Lagos; and Accra to come, and then Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa;  we are currently exploring several other markets as well in Africa in the next few years. Nothing to reveal yet, but we see Africa as one of our biggest growth opportunities in the next few years”.

He further explained that his airline has no plans to operate beyond Lagos stating that currently, they are restricted from doing that despite the strategic importance of Abuja.

As an airline, he reiterated has a long list of destinations to explore because there is always an opportunity in the market but regretted that at the moment, it is restricted.

He further stated that Virgin Atlantic had recovered from COVID-19 and had continued to develop the airline profitably and continued growing with the recent launch of the Accra route.

“We’re also launching the Riyadh route in Saudi Arabia. We’re growing in India, so we are growing in multiple markets at the same time because we are now in the expansion phase in a profitable way.”

“We have done some foundational changes, closed some of the operations in other airports, renewed our fleet, and we now have the youngest fleet in the sky, with about six years. We are the most sustainable option, we have as an organization become much more efficient, and joining Skyteam, so we’ve, I would say, COVID was very difficult for the whole industry, but it’s been also, you could say, a blessing of renewal.”

“So we can say that we can leave the pandemic now behind us. We can hopefully soon leave 2019 behind us. We are here now to continue. We have transformed the airline in modern times.”

He unfolded some of the plans of the carrier to remain very competitive and carrier of choice, stressing that this year, they will be renewing their distribution strategy.

“We will be implementing new technology, which will make it easier for Nigerian travel agents to book us. So we are always seeking new ways to distribute so that the agents have the best prices, the best offer and then just making sure that the signature version service by as many Nigerians as possible.”

Wole Shadare