Virgin Atlantic to operate increased Services to Shanghai and plans Beijing flights

Virgin Atlantic is to increase its Heathrow Shanghai services from five weekly to daily starting on 30 October 2005 and said it plans to start a daily Beijing service as soon as possible. These new services follow the Chinese government’s decision to make the UK one of its Approved Destination Countries, which allows more Chinese tourists to visit the UK.

Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Atlantic commented, “Virgin Atlantic is delighted to offer daily services to Shanghai from October. Virgin Atlantic has been operating flights between London and Shanghai since 1999 and has been instrumental in developing the link between the two cities. The airline has flown over 330,000 passengers on the route to date.

“China is one of the fastest growing economies of the world and following last week’s decision by the government to give the UK Approved Destination Status we are also planning to start daily services to Beijing as soon as possible.

“With China hosting the Olympics in 2008 we believe that there will be a huge demand for passengers who wish to take advantage of competitive fares and the quality of service that Virgin Atlantic offers.”

Virgin Atlantic currently flies five times a week between London Heathrow and Shanghai Pudong Airport. The VS250 departs Heathrow at 16:00 on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays arriving into Shanghai Pudong Airport at 11:15 the following day. (The flight departs at 15.50 on Friday and at 16.05 on Tuesday). The return flight VS251 departs Shanghai on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 13:30 arriving into Heathrow at 17:50.

Virgin Atlantic currently operates a daily service between London Heathrow and Hong Kong and recently launched daily services between Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia.

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