New Route of the Day – Americas (29 March 2022): Virgin Atlantic between Orlando and Edinburgh

Virgin Atlantic on Tuesday 29 March began its first service between Orlando MCO and Edinburgh. Flight VS 226, operated by an A330-300 registration G-VGEM departed the Florida airport at 17:09 local time arriving in Scotland early the following morning at 05:51, 29 minutes ahead of schedule. The aircraft, based at Manchester had arrived in Orlando from Manchester at 13:37 on 29 March. The first flight from Edinburgh to Orlando took place on Wednesday 30 March (flight VS 225) departing at 10:48 local time and landing in Florida at 14:12 the same day. The aircraft then operated back to its base in Manchester. This is Virgin’s second route from Edinburgh as it began 2-weekly service to Barbados last December. However, the Caribbean route only operated until mid-February.

Virgin’s third regular route to Orlando

This becomes the airline’s third regular route to Orlando as it already serves the airport from London LHR (14-weekly) and Manchester (12-weekly). In addition, Cirium schedule data shows that Virgin will operate four flights to Orlando from Belfast BFS, split across June and July. Prior to the pandemic, Virgin had also served Orlando from Glasgow GLA, with flights in 2019 operating from March to December.

Five US cities served non-stop this summer from Edinburgh

Virgin’s US partner Delta will be serving Edinburgh this summer with daily flights from New York JFK and 5-weekly service from Boston. Global rival United’s offering to the Scottish capital this summer comprises daily flights from Chicago ORD, New York EWR and Washington IAD. However, compared with S19, American has not resumed its Philadelphia service.

While Edinburgh is expected to welcome 35-weekly flights to/from the US this summer, Glasgow currently has just two. These will be operated by TUI Airways to Melbourne Orlando International Airport.