Virgin Atlantic has announced the debut of a new non-stop route from London Heathrow (LHR) to Toronto Pearson (YYZ). The service is set to begin on March 30, 2025, marking the carrier’s return to Canada after nearly a decade.
As part of the announcement, Virgin Atlantic also revealed an expanded codeshare partnership with WestJet, which begin to take effect as of October 2024.
Virgin Atlantic Launches London–Toronto Route
Virgin Atlantic has announced the upcoming launch of a new route that will connect London Heathrow (LHR) and Toronto Pearson (YYZ).
While the official schedule will be announced on June 19, 2024, Virgin Atlantic expects the new route to operate daily as of March 30, 2025. Tickets will begin at £490 ($858 CAD) per person.
Virgin Atlantic last flew to Canada in October 2014 with a route to Vancouver, according to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company.
The London-based carrier plans to operate a mix of aircraft on the route, including the Airbus A330-900neo – the latest addition to Virgin Atlantic’s fleet.
Furthermore, Virgin Atlantic and WestJet have announced an expanded codeshare partnership, slated to take effect in October 2024 and expand throughout 2025.
Aside from offering Virgin Atlantic passengers additional connectivity to WestJet’s network, as well as providing WestJet passengers access to Virgin Atlantic’s network across India, Africa, and the Middle East, it’s expected that reciprocal frequent flyer benefits will take effect at some point in 2025.
This means that it will eventually be possible to redeem WestJet dollars for Virgin Atlantic flights, and to redeem Virgin Points for WestJet flights. It’s expected that further details about the frequent flyer benefits will be announced at a later date.
WestJet and Virgin Atlantic Target Indian Passengers
As part of the announcement, Virgin Atlantic noted that the new flight to Toronto will provide “optimal connectivity” for Indian passengers departing from Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai via London.
On its website, WestJet outlines that it will provide its passengers one-stop connections on a single ticket to destinations never offered before, including Virgin Atlantic’s destinations in the Middle East, India, and Africa.
As it stands, Air Canada offers non-stop service from Toronto Pearson (YYZ) and Montreal (YUL) to Delhi, as well as a recently announced new non-stop route from Toronto Pearson (YYZ) to Mumbai (BOM) which will begin in Winter 2024/2025.
As part of the announcement of the new Toronto–Mumbai route, Air Canada outlined its boosted overall service to India, which offers passengers departing from Calgary (YYC) and Vancouver (YVR) with service to Delhi via London Heathrow (LHR).
It’s interesting to see both WestJet and Air Canada increasing their service to India, with WestJet through a codeshare agreement with Virgin Atlantic and Air Canada through its own service.
Keep in mind that Air India also operates non-stop flights between Delhi (DEL) and Vancouver (YVR) and Toronto Pearson (YYZ).
As Air India continues to take delivery of new Airbus A350-900 aircraft, which offer a competitive product, it will be interesting to see if they’re launched on Canadian routes later this year.
If they are, passengers would benefit from a reduced flying time, since Air India continues to fly over Russian airspace, while Air Canada either routes via London or southward over the Middle East.
Conclusion
Virgin Atlantic has announced the launch of a new route that will connect London Heathrow (LHR) with Toronto Pearson (YYZ). The route is set to debut as of March 30, 2025.
Furthermore, Virgin Atlantic and WestJet are expanding upon their codeshare agreement, which will take effect as of October 2024 and build throughout 2025.
It’s expected that reciprocal frequent flyer benefits will be introduced in 2025, including the ability to earn and redeem points with either airline.
