Weak customer demand has prompted Virgin Atlantic to suspend its Barbados services from Manchester and Edinburgh in the coming weeks.
The airline says both routes will resume in the winter.
Manchester-Barbados will be suspended after April 30 which may not inconvenience too many customers.
More serious is the situation with Edinburgh-Barbados which will be suspended just two months after it was launched.
Virgin Atlantic to launch international flights from Edinburgh
This route was a highlight of Virgin Atlantic’s arrival in the Scottish capital. The airline must have thought a Barbados route would appeal to the locals.
Virgin Atlantic launched this route in December and the airline now says it will be suspended effective February 16.
This must be a disappointment for both the airline and Edinburgh airport.
I say that because in 2021 Virgin Atlantic transferred its Scottish base from Glasgow to Edinburgh, a move which attracted a fair amount of criticism – see reader comments at the end of this report.
Virgin Atlantic to close existing Glasgow operations in favour of Edinburgh
Quoted in The Scotsman a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said “The [schedule] change [from Edinburgh] was made because of ‘subdued bookings’”.
The airline blames this on “changing travel restrictions and [UK] arrival testing requirements”.
So what should Scottish customers wishing to take Virgin Atlantic to Barbados do after February 16?
They can of course travel by road or rail to Manchester (before that route is suspended) or they can connect via London using British Airways for the domestic leg.
However this isn’t as easy as it sounds as a Heathrow terminal transfer is needed.
In better news, as we recently reported Virgin is set to resume its London Heathrow to Tobago service this week.