- Having operated flights from Heathrow to Dubai for more than a decade, Virgin Atlantic said it was 鈥渘o longer economically viable鈥� to operate the route.
- With Dubai鈥檚 flagship airline Emirates operating numerous daily flights to London鈥檚 Heathrow as well as serving six other UK airports,聽Virgin Atlantic was poorly positioned to compete, experts said.
LONDON: Increasingly tough competition on London-Dubai flights pushed Virgin Atlantic out of the market, underscoring the dominance of Emirates on the prized route.
Having operated flights from Heathrow to Dubai for more than a decade, Virgin Atlantic said it was 鈥渘o longer economically viable鈥� to operate the route.
With Dubai鈥檚 flagship airline Emirates operating numerous daily flights to London鈥檚 Heathrow as well as serving six other UK airports, Virgin Atlantic was poorly positioned to compete, experts said.
鈥淟ondon to Dubai is served not only by Emirates, but also by British Airways. Both offering several flights per day, thus, there is obviously sufficient offer,鈥� said Tobias Ruckerl, CEO and consultant at Advanced Aviation Consulting. BA operates regular flights from its London Heathrow hub.
鈥淰irgin is a smaller player in this market and obviously they cannot stand the competition any more,鈥� he said.
鈥淒ubai probably has not been a profitable route for Virgin Atlantic in some time,鈥� added US-based aviation expert Jason Rabinowitz.
鈥淓mirates now has up to 10 daily flights to the London area, with nearly 5,000 seats offered each day each way. Virgin, on the other hand, offered a single flight.
鈥淓ven if Virgin could compete on price, and it probably cannot, there is simply too much competition on the London-Dubai route to keep it up,鈥� he said.
Virgin Atlantic cited 鈥渆xternal factors鈥� behind its decision to cancel the route, in a statement issued late Wednesday.
鈥淚t鈥檚 never an easy decision to withdraw a route, and we鈥檇 like to thank our customers and dedicated team in Dubai for their loyalty over the last 12 years,鈥� said Shai Weiss, chief commercial officer for Virgin Atlantic. The airline will continue to fly to Dubai until March 31 next year.
It is the second airline this year to ditch flights between the emirate and the UK capital, with Royal Brunei Airlines announcing last month that it would no longer fly from Brunei to London via Dubai.
Direct non-stop Brunei-London flights are to launch later this year.
Last year, Australia鈥檚 airline Qantas announced plans to return its transit hub from Dubai to Singapore.
While such developments have raised concerns that transit traffic and tourist numbers traveling via the Gulf airport could be negatively affected, most analysts have said that the strength of Emirates airline will maintain Dubai鈥檚 global predominance.
鈥淎s long as Emirates remains the powerful airline it is, I don鈥檛 see Dubai being in any sort of risk of losing its status as a major transit hub,鈥� said Rabinowitz.
鈥淲hile some airlines have opted to start ultra long-haul flights, offering non-stop routes where previously they stopped in Dubai, that is still a very small niche for airlines. The few other airlines that do stop at Dubai are insignificant when compared to the massive Emirates operation,鈥� he said.
Andrew Charlton, managing director at Switzerland-based Aviation Advocacy was similarly upbeat. 鈥淣o destination likes to see airlines leave, but in the scheme of things it is part of the parry and thrust of commercial aviation and should be seen in that context, not as a major statement on the health of Dubai or of aviation in the market.鈥�
Emirates has further strengthened its presence in the UK this year, with the launch of its new daily service between Dubai and Stansted airport 鈥� located on the outskirts of the capital 鈥� this month.
The Middle Eastern airline is also set to launch a new service to Edinburgh later this year. It already flies to Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham and London Gatwick and Heathrow.
Passenger traffic at Dubai International reached 7.6 million in April, relatively flat compared to the same month the previous year.
Year-to-date, traffic reached 30.35 million passengers, up 0.8 percent on the same time period last year, according to Dubai Airports data.
Dubai remained the third busiest airport in 2017, with passenger traffic rising by 5.5 percent last year, according to the Airports Council International. It is the world鈥檚 busiest airport in terms of international passengers.