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Virgin Atlantic has announced that after an absence of ~5 years, it will be resuming daily flights from London to Cape Town.

From 25th October 2020, the airline will deploy a Boeing 787-9 aircraft over the winter, operating the following schedule:

• London Heathrow – Cape Town, (flight number VS478), departing at 16:20 and arriving at 05:55
• Cape Town – London Heathrow (flight number VS479), departing at 08:00 and arriving at 18:00

Tickets should be on sale from 18th February 2020.

Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Virgin Atlantic commented: “2020 is an extremely exciting year of continued growth for Virgin Atlantic. Not only are we launching a new service to Sao Paulo in March but we’re delighted to announce a new seasonal service to Cape Town offering more choice for our customers than ever before.”

“We’re delighted to be flying to Cape Town again – we’re expecting a high proportion of leisure travellers on this route taking advantage of the winter sun, the safaris and of course, the world-famous wine region.”

Bottom line

Cape Town is an extremely popular destination, but there aren’t as many direct flights available as you might think – in fact, only British Airways currently offers direct service from the UK. Hopefully, Virgin getting involved will help create some competition as regards cash fares, but it also opens a new redemption option for UK points/miles collectors.

Assuming that award pricing will be the same as Virgin’s existing Johannesburg route, return flights should cost:

• Economy: 25,000 miles off peak – 45,000 miles peak  (plus ~£275 taxes/surcharges)
• Premium: 35,000 miles off peak – 65,000 miles peak (plus ~£420 taxes/surcharges)
• Upper Class: 115,000 miles off peak – 135,000 miles peak (plus ~£585 taxes/surcharges)

It’s great to see Virgin flying to Cape Town again – using miles for off peak Economy and Premium awards looks particularly tempting….