Virgin flights London to Mumbai cancelled / suspended

Have just read and been informed by Virgin that my flights from London to Mumbai in August 09 have been cancelled. The last ones are in May.

They didn%26#39;t contact me until I read in the Sunday papers and contacted them !

Virgin flights London to Mumbai cancelled / suspended

skds, Thanx for this. Did they or the newspapers cite a reason?

Virgin flights London to Mumbai cancelled / suspended

Oh really? I didn%26#39;t know. How unprofessional is that; not informing passengers!

I wonder if it%26#39;s competition or reduced demand in the monsoons for trips to Bombay.

I suspect that it may be reduced load factors because of the slowdown-Jet discontinued their flights from Bangalore to Brussels as well as Delhi to SFO citing low load factors. A friend in the aviation industry tells me that each flight, apart from two aircraft, also requires about 5 or more sets of crew, so it is quite capital intensive, and needs sustained load factors to earn profits.

An update : The Virgin flights have been suspended , which in my case means cancelled from May 09 until the route becomes more economically viable...I take that to mean when other airlines go bust and there are more passengers available and the prices can rise.

I have been re booked, initially without notice, to Delhi about 800 miles away.

I called them and to be fair to Virgin they are offering the following options:

A full refund

Free internal flights from Delhi to Mumbai and return

An alternative flight to Mumbai using a choice of carriers Kingfisher, Air India, Jet or their arch rivals British Airways.

I have flown BA many times before. Does anyone have recomendations or otherwise on the other carriers Kingfisher, Air India or Jet ?

Oooh, take Jet! take Jet!

- Deepa

You can%26#39;t go wrong with Kingfisher or Jet Airways. Impeccable service, both carriers.

Air India ? I%26#39;d prefer to walk it.

Deepa, you are still envious of the PYT%26#39;s wearing red skirts on Kingfisher airlines !!

Yes, I can vouch for Jet Airways. An excellent airline! Just hope Spicejet are half as good :%26gt;(!

I previously travelled on Virgin to Mumbai and did not enjoy the flight. The seat was lot smaller not enough leg room. The service was not the same as if you were travelling to the USA on Virgin. So this cancellation is a blessing.

You cannot go wrong with Jet Airways or Kingfisher. I would not re book onto Air India as from London they always over book.

I have flown several times from London to Mumbai on Jetairways and the service and food has been great.

Kingfisher have recently introduced the London to Mumbai route and a friend has travelled with them and highly recommends them as well.

Hope this helps.

Am I the only one who prefers BA to Jet on the London-Mumbai sector? Even tho I am a die-hard Jet fan in India?

And Brave1, the trousered Jet staff can any day handle midlife crisis stricken customers better than the scarlet skirted YTs, P or not . Meeeeow!