Today, Virgin Atlantic announced the launch of a new route between London and Cancun, Mexico starting next summer. The twice weekly service will begin on 12 June 2012 and will see up to 94,000 Virgin Atlantic customers travelling between London and Cancun in the first year.

Cancun becomes Virgin Atlantic’s 33rd destination worldwide.  The new route strengthens the airline’s leisure network from London Gatwick, which already includes nine leading long haul destinations in the Caribbean and USA.  Virgin Atlantic estimates that the new route will deliver around $25million of tourism revenue to the Cancun market each year* and has the potential to create up to 650 jobs in aviation and tourism in Mexico.

Speaking in Miami, Sir Richard Branson, President of Virgin Atlantic said:

“We are so pleased to be launching flights to Cancun next year.  Many customers have asked us to fly direct to this exciting destination over the years.  With its superb beaches, great hotels and cultural sites, tourism in Cancun is thriving.  We believe that we can drive demand even higher by providing great competition to our rivals with our award winning product and service.

“Cancun is one of the top five long-haul leisure destinations for UK travelers, so we are delighted to be able to add this route to the network.  This route launch further cements our position as the UK’s leading long haul leisure airline.”

The twice weekly service will be operated by a Boeing 747-400, which will be configured with 14 Upper Class Suites, 58 Premium Economy seats and 379 Economy seats.

Amanda Wills, Managing Director of Virgin Holidays commented:
“We’re delighted to be increasing our Mexico product and are looking forward to supporting the new route by launching our first ever dedicated brochure to the country in July, featuring a wide range of hotels in Cancun and beyond.

“Whether it is beautiful beaches, great hotels or its fascinating cultural heritage, Mexico boasts many of the things our customers love and we know they will receive a very warm welcome from the people there.”

Virgin Holidays package holidays to Mexico will start at £799 for a seven night all inclusive break.

This addition to Virgin Atlantic’s leisure programme follows its recent launch of Manchester to Las Vegas flights and the introduction earlier this year of its new Airbus A330 aircraft on its Orlando route.  The new aircraft offers customers cutting edge seat back technology including touch screens and ipod enabled entertainment.

Virgin Atlantic currently flies to 32 destinations worldwide. The airline carried six million passengers last year and has 39 long haul aircraft in its fleet.