- Virgin Atlantic wants to make travel affordable for C’bean passengers
Virgin Atlantic says it wants to offer affordable Caribbean flights to Europe and work with Barbados on a bolder vision for the island to attract more visitors.
“I’d like to see a grander vision for this island, more confident in its goals. We know high-quality hotel rooms are always in demand. We want shoreline development’, said Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss.
We want a bold entrepreneurship vision—all the things your government is doing. We want it all to lead to a 2030 vision we can support. Weise, who was visiting Barbados, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that it will thrill many consumers, travellers, and leisure-makers to visit this great destination.
He also assured Caribbean tourists that the airline, majority owned by British business billionaire Sir Richard Branson, will do all in its ability to make travel between the area and Europe as affordable as possible.
Every airline has controllable and non-controllable costs. Due to global tensions and the pandemic and post-pandemic era, fuel prices have skyrocketed in recent years.
Of course, inflation and interest rates have risen significantly. So that affected us greatly. Weiss told CMC that his company’s goal is to be as efficient as possible on the things it controls to offer the greatest prices to clients.
Weiss was particularly pleased that Delta Air Lines, a large American airline firm, owns a minority stake in the airline, which has recovered to 2019 passenger levels.
“I would like to see more tourists on our planes using tourist packages that include a car, hotel, and flight. We vacation on Virgin Atlantic. I want it to rise and more customers on our planes using Virgin Atlantic’s full suite of services.
Approximately 10% of our overseas capacity serves the Caribbean. We’re thrilled that Delta Air Lines will be flying to the Caribbean from Atlanta and New York in October. That will feed into the tag markets—these other markets we serve out of Barbados.
Overall, we and our partners are delighted with the capacity, said Weiss. How we promote its growth is now.
Weiss called the Caribbean Virgin Atlantic’s home away from home, bringing half a million people annually, 200,000 to Barbados.
He was pleased with the advantages of over two decades of cooperation with the Caribbean.
Weiss informed CMC that Virgin Atlantic, commemorating its 40th anniversary on June 22, annually creates an event schedule to maximise aeroplane capacity for guests from both sides to attend each other’s festivals.
He promised the Caribbean would join the global anniversary party.
