Virgin Atlantic inaugurates Islamabad from Manchester

OPerating four-weekly, VS362 leaves Manchester at 1235 and arrives into Islamabad at 0100. VS363 then departs at 0330 and arrives back at 0700.

Virgin Atlantic began Manchester – Islamabad on 10 December.

Operating four-weekly using 264-seat B787-9s, the 6,147-kilometre route competes directly with a twice-weekly offering by Pakistan International.  To circumvent its EU ban, PIA is using wet-leased 285-seat A330-300 from Hi Fly.

This was the largest non-stop market between Pakistan and the UK last year, OAG data indicates.  It had almost three in ten non-stop seats.

Including both non-stop and indirect traffic, over 295,000 flew between Manchester and Islamabad last year, booking data reveals, for PDEW of 404.

Read more: Virgin Atlantic to began Pakistan from big gap left by PIA.

In 2019, Manchester – Islamabad had the most non-stop seats of all UK – Pakistan routes. Source: OAG Schedules Analyser.