Virgin Atlantic launches Edinburgh-Caribbean flights

Edinburgh is to get a nonstop connection with the Caribbean. Virgin Atlantic will start flying from the Scottish capital to Barbados on 5 December.

The airline also plans to move its former Glasgow-Orlando service to start in Edinburgh from 30 March 2022.

While Virgin Atlantic flew between Edinburgh and London Heathrow with its short-lived Little Red service between 2013 and 2015, it is the first time Sir Richard Branson’s airline has flown internationally from the city.

The twice-weekly services on each route will be flown by a Manchester-based Airbus A330 aircraft.

The Barbados route will offer connections to other Virgin flights to Grenada, St Vincent and Tobago.

Juha Jarvinen, the airline’s chief commercial officer, said: “Commencing international flights from Edinburgh marks an exciting new chapter for Virgin Atlantic and we couldn’t be happier to be flying from a new home in Scotland.”

The link from Glasgow to Florida, which last operated in December 2019, will not return.

At present British visitors are banned from travelling to the US.

Gordon Dewar, chief executive of Edinburgh airport, said: “A premier city like Edinburgh deserves premier airlines and we are extremely excited to welcome our newest partner Virgin Atlantic to Scotland’s capital city.

“It is a huge show of confidence in Edinburgh airport’s ability to deliver for passengers across the country.”

Scotland’s transport minister, Graeme Dey, said: “It is encouraging to see airlines develop their connectivity to Scotland at this time and I am sure this news will be welcomed by passengers.”

The airline schedules analyst, Sean Moulton, said the move to Edinburgh was partly due to Virgin Atlantic’s partner and co-owner, Delta, having a route from the capital to New York.

“This Central Belt co-location may help with cost saving as well as diversifying the network, capitalising on the increase in leisure travel predicted in the coming months,” he said.

The announcement coincided with the resumption of Emirates flights from Dubai to Glasgow, for the first time since January – when the UK banned international leisure travel.

The UAE, which was placed on the UK government’s “red list” because of its status as a global aviation hub, has now been moved to the medium-risk “amber list” – with no quarantine required from people fully vaccinated in the UK, European Union or US.

Flight EK27 departed from Dubai to Scotland’s biggest city at 8am, local time, with take-off from Glasgow back to the UAE at 2.35pm.

The link will initially operate four days a week, increasing to daily from September.

By October, Emirates will increase its UK services to 73 weekly flights, including a six-times-a-day London Heathrow operation, double-daily A380 flights to Manchester and 10 weekly services to Birmingham.

But it has not yet said when flights might resume between Dubai and Edinburgh.

Separately, Virgin Atlantic has announced it will fly from Manchester to Montego Bay in Jamaica from 6 November 2021, and from London Heathrow to St Lucia from 18 December 2021.