The airline said in a statement the new evening service, which compliments an existing Delhi–Newark flight, will have a 1 hour 25 minute stop over in Heathrow to give passengers chance of “stretching their legs and indulging in some duty-free shopping” before departing for JFK.
The carrier said the new service was being launched to build upon the airline’s strong performance to Newark from Delhi and to “capitalise on the growing passenger numbers to New York and the USA”. It also plans to add a new service to Mumbai later in the year.
“India is definitely one of our key markets and along with launching Mumbai later this year we are really looking forward to connecting more passengers to JFK and Newark out of Delhi. The schedule has been designed to enable passengers from India’s capital to connect quickly to New York. Our increasing share to Newark shows that passengers prefer breaking the journey in half, stretching their legs and indulging in some duty-free shopping. We're looking forward to making this new service to JFK a success,” said Stephen King, Virgin Atlantic Airways’ general manager for India.
The Delhi-New York market is highly competitive with airlines including KLM, Emirates, Etihad, Air France and British Airways offering connecting services through their respective hubs.
Only United currently offers a direct service via a daily B777 service.
