Virgin Atlantic CEO Craig Kreeger has confirmed the airline will open a new Upper Class lounge at Los Angeles' LAX airport as well as enabling wifi on its entire 787-9 fleet.
Speaking to BBT, Kreeger confirmed that part of a £300 million investment in “improving the customer experience” will go towards a building a new Clubhouse at LAX. Virgin Upper Class passengers flying from Los Angeles currently have to use a shared lounge.
Kreeger couldn’t confirm when the lounge would open or when the wifi would be enabled on the 787-9s, but that these were “two of a number of initiatives” Virgin is introducing “over the next couple of years” to help meet the expected growth in demand.
“We want to build and open a Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Los Angeles, more details will be made in the not so distant future,” said Kreeger. “It’s an important city for us and one that we have seen a big growth from in business traveller demand, and we wanted to give our customers more of an experience on the ground as well as what they get in the air.
"That and the wifi announcement is just part of how we will spend the £300 million,” he added.
Network review
Earlier today, Virgin announced a number of route changes following a network review, as the airline looks to post an annual profit by the end of 2014. The changes include cancelling of its London Heathrow to Tokyo Narita and Mumbai services, which will happen in early 2015.
“As a company we are past the recovery stage and must now focus on how we can build a long-term successful business, to be able to grow, invest and serve more customers,” said Kreeger.
“So we took a long look at our entire network and analysed the routes that weren’t profitable. Of these we then looked to see if there was a path to it becoming profitable, such as a new aircraft type... if the answer was 'no', then we knew we’d have to make the decision to end those routes.”
Virgin Atlantic also announced a new London Heathrow to Detroit daily service. “Detroit is a great example of a route that wouldn’t normally be at the top of our list but with our codeshare with Delta it looks like a great opportunity for Virgin,” said Kreeger.
“It’s a key destination for business travellers but what really stands out is all the connecting opportunities our passengers will have from Detroit.”
Exact dates when these proposed route changes will take effect have not been disclosed.
Low cost
Kreeger said despite the emergence of low-cost transatlantic operators such as Norwegian he doesn’t see those airlines as a threat. “Our industry is intensively competitive and we feel we offer extremely competitive pricing with or without Norwegian. But we like to think if we combine those prices with our own Virgin flair and services then we can compete with anybody.”
Read an interview BBT editor Paul Revel did with Craig Kreeger in November 2013.
VirginAtlantic.com