[caption id="attachment_7169" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="A Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340 landing (Photo: Airplane Pictures)"][/caption]

Virgin Atlantic has today announced it will withdraw operations between Nairobi and London on 24th September 2012.

Increasing costs and a challenging economic environment during the past five years in both Kenya and Europe have contributed to the decision to withdraw the service. A consultation period has started with the Virgin Atlantic staff employed in Nairobi.

Julie Southern, Chief Commercial Officer for Virgin Atlantic said, “We have taken the difficult decision to withdraw our services between Nairobi and London. Despite the best efforts of our employees, external factors including the high price of fuel, increasing aviation taxes in the UK and insufficient passenger numbers throughout the past five years have contributed to the decision.”

“These are still challenging times for the airline industry and we have to deploy our aircraft to routes with the right level of demand to be financially viable.”

“We will be supporting our staff in Nairobi through a period of consultation. We’d like to thank our customers and business partners for their support.”

Since Virgin Atlantic launched in 2007, British Air Passenger Duty (APD) has risen by over 100% and fuel costs have increased by more than 50%.

The last Virgin Atlantic flight will operate from Nairobi on the 24th September and from London Heathrow on the 23rd September. The full published schedule will be operated until this point so passengers can be confident and continue to book flights throughout the next few months.

Courtesy: SilverBullet PR