Speaking in South Africa’s “Mother City” to celebrate the resumption in November of Virgin’s daily Heathrow-Cape Town service, Jarvinen said demand had exceeded expectations, with 82% load factors in November and December and figures in the 70%-plus bracket for January.
Quizzed on why it had taken such a long time to get back to Cape Town, Jarvinen told TTG Virgin pulled the service in 2015 as it was “not meeting profitability targets”, adding the aircraft used at the time, an Airbus 340-600, “was not optimal for the route”.
