Virgin Atlantic’s new Seoul route is operating significantly above the airline’s expectations with load factors in excess of 80%.
CEO Corneel Koster said the airline had been looking to fly to Korea for a long time and was confident the route would be a success.
The inaugural flight, VS208, touched down at Incheon International Airport on Tuesday with UK media, top fliers, and Virgin Atlantic’s senior management team on board.
Virgin Atlantic is the only British flag carrier flying direct between the UK and South Korea and is operating the service daily on a Boeing 787-9.
“Korea offers a combination of trend and tradition. It’s on a cultural wave, inspired by K-pop, K-beauty, cinema and good food driving travel demand,” said Koster at a press conference at Incheon.
He told UK and Korean media the route’s success would be partly due to onward connectivity with Virgin’s SkyTeam partners.
Through its partnership with Korean Air, customers can connect through Seoul to Northeast Asian destinations such as Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo Haneda, Tokyo Narita, Fukuoka, Okinawa and Hokkaido in Japan, Sydney and Brisbane in Australia, Auckland in New Zealand, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang in Vietnam and Hong Kong.
In addition, passengers can enjoy benefits with other SkyTeam partners operating at Incheon, including Vietnam Airlines, China Eastern, China Airlines, Garuda Indonesia and Xiamen Airlines.
Virgin Atlantic offers three cabins on the route – Upper Class, Premium and Economy – with an onboard bar in Upper Class.
Menus have been developed alongside chefs and local partners to showcase the best of Korean cuisine as well as signature Western dishes.
Due to restrictions in Russian air space, the route takes around 12 hours from London to Seoul and around 14 hours on the return.
Fares from the UK start from £889 Economy, £1,489 Premium, and £3,239 Upper Class, while roundtrip fares departing Seoul start from KRW846,000 (£426) Economy, KRW1,840,000 (£927) Premium, and KRW3,846,000 (£1,938) Upper Class.
The Seoul launch comes after Virgin Atlantic confirmed the termination of its Riyadh service after less than one year in operation.
The airline’s Chief Commercial Officer Dave Geer said the service had clearly been impacted by the conflict in the Middle East but was already not performing as strongly as hoped, with load factors at around 60%.
“This route was based on demand forecasted to increase, but we saw this was going to take some time to bounce back. But we’ve got a good partnership with our SkyTeam partner Saudia,” he said.
The Saudi capacity has been transferred to the airline’s Bangalore and Montego Bay routes.
Geer said he was confident the airline’s London to Dubai winter service would return later this year, with tickets already up for sale.
