View Full Version : Virgin to Nassau/Havana
spoilers yellow
31st Aug 2004, 12:32
Does anyone know when Virgin start services to Nassau and Havana?
Are they going to be direct or is one a shuttle from the other?
hoofhearted
31st Aug 2004, 13:37
July 2005. One service per week to Nassau. Twice per week to Havana. I believe they will be non-stop. :D
spoilers yellow
31st Aug 2004, 16:29
Does that mean 7 day NAS trips for the Virgin crew?
no, no, no
1st Sep 2004, 09:00
wouldn't they mix them in with the Miami crews and just position them? NAS-MIA is only about 40 mins I think.
Or would they mix them in with the Havana crews???
As much as the crews would love it I doubt it would make much economical sense to leave them there for a full week????
Remember Americans are still not permitted, by US law, to travel to Cuba. As a result there is no commercial air service in the conventional sense between Havana and the USA. And although there are some charters that do this (you can occasionally see them leaving from obscure gates at Miami) they are hedged around with all sorts of restrictions that would make them impractical to use.
Regarding Nassau, although it is easy to travel between there and Miami, with a daily service to Miami and a weekly one to Nassau it is not really possible to put a roster together that doesn't have the same overall effect in terms of hotac costs, total layover time, etc, as if you did them separately, let alone the additional deadhead flight costs.
Carnage Matey!
1st Sep 2004, 21:16
'Cos its a bad Commie country and Commies are bad.
Confirmed Must Ride
2nd Sep 2004, 07:43
At last somewhere that is too far for drunk english adolescents to get to and the american spring break equivalant is not allowed, the place must be bliss
It's not as blissful as you'd think - McDonalds and Coca-Cola may be missing now but the Americans have started to visit in numbers!
Americans can travel there fairly easily as long as they transit through another country such as Canada or Mexico (they usually request that their passport is not stamped by Cuban customs to ease transit back into the USA).
Still glad to hear of a direct scheduled flight to Cuba from the UK.
esvdx
c.r.m what is it
2nd Sep 2004, 10:41
Cubana have been operating a direct route from gatwick for a few years now, so it is nothing new, currently using a novair-sweden A330
Saying that cuba is a great place to visit, and it is cheap! so at least you will soon be able to do it in more comfort, on a virgin flight.
Does anyone know what type of aircraft virgin are planning to use on these routes?
scroggs
3rd Sep 2004, 08:44
Virgin's Caribbean routes are all flown by B744s, with the occasional exception of cruise ship charters. Miami is operated by the A340-600, so there's no chance of crews operating Gatwick-Nassau and then positioning to Miami to operate back to Heathrow. However, Virgin does position crews within the Caribbean already, so it's quite possible that there will be positioning to/from Nassau and Havana - but that decision has not yet been made.
ib16uk Virgin's A340s also operate to Los Angeles, New York (JFK and EWR), Boston, Washington, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Johannesburg and Cape Town. We're not entirely restricted to the Far East! And as the A340 becomes by far the bigger fleet over the next few years (up to 47 aircraft potentially), it will fly to more and more destinations - of which Sydney is the next.
Air Jamaica also fly scheduled A340s nonstop from Heathrow to Havana every Monday, continuing on to Kingston.