Virgin Atlantic Partners With EasyJet

Virgin Atlantic has been busy in recent weeks. Shortly after making some to their Flying Club loyalty programme, the airline restored many of its pre-pandemic flight destinations to the timetable and secured £400m of new investment from Delta Air Lines and its founder Richard Branson. Now it has announced an extended partnership with UK based short-haul airline EasyJet.

easyJet is the largest British owned low-cost airline and primarily operates flights within Europe. In contrast, Virgin Atlantic is a long haul carrier with a focus on flights from the UK to North American, Caribbean, African and Asian destinations. So their alliance makes a lot of sense since it allows both airlines to offer a combined network of connections from the UK that is more competitive with British Airways' extensive list of interconnected long and short-haul destinations.

The new arrangement between the companies means that passengers flying with EasyJet can now connect to Virgin Atlantic flights via Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast airports through an alliance called “Worldwide by EasyJet''.

Virgin Atlantic + Worldwide by EasyJet

Worldwide by easyJet originally launched in September 2017, allowing customers to book easyJet flights and onward connections with partner airlines at the same time. At launch, those connections were provided by Norwegian and Westjet through coordinated flight schedules at London Gatwick Airport. 

Virgin Atlantic flights from Gatwick were then added to the scheme in 2018. Subsequently, Worldwide by easyJet has added partner connections at Milan Malpensa, Venice Marco Polo, Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris Charles De Gaulle and Orly airports.

Since Virgin Atlantic consolidated its London departures into Heathrow Airport at the height of the pandemic, its previous arrangement with easyJet had effectively ended. So, in the short term, the new partnership will only benefit passengers connecting between the airlines at Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast. Easyjet doesn’t operate any flights from London Heathrow. However, if industry rumours are to be believed, Virgin is considering a return to Gatwick that could see a revival of the alliance with easyJet there too.

The extension of the Worldwide by easyJet agreement will certainly open up more connectivity between easyJet’s UK bases outside London and across Europe with Virgin Atlantic routes, particularly to the US. Connecting destinations include Jersey to New York and Belfast to Barbados. easyJet serves over 130 European airports and recently announced an expansion of its 2022 autumn flying schedule, with more than 78,000 flights now available between 1 October and 30 November next year.

Juha Jarvinen, chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic, said: “We’re delighted to be welcoming EasyJet customers onboard Virgin Atlantic flights from Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast.

“We know there is huge pent-up demand for people wanting to get away on holiday whether to the Caribbean for a relaxing sunny break or Stateside to explore their favourite cities. Thanks to this new partnership with Worldwide by easyJet, customers from across the UK and Europe can now connect easily onto Virgin Atlantic destinations including New York, Barbados, and Orlando.”

Sophie Dekkers, chief commercial officer, at easyJet, added: “At easyJet we’re committed to making travel as easy as possible as well as providing great value and more choice for our customers when they travel. We are delighted to be working with Virgin Atlantic to open up even more opportunities for customers to connect across our European network onto North America, through our innovative Worldwide by easyJet platform.