The collapse of travel giant Thomas Cook opened up opportunity for Virgin Atlantic to grow in Manchester, it said.
Nick Stower, director of external affairs at Virgin Atlantic, said the “sad demise of Thomas Cook” had given the airline the opportunity to increase the number of flights from Manchester Airport.
Mr Stower made the comments at a panel event held by Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce discussing how the expansion of London’s Heathrow Airport could benefit businesses in the North West.
Mr Stower said: “We’ve announced increased leisure flying in Manchester in the Winter and in the Summer next year, so by Summer 2020, we’ll have 800,000 more seats to sell.”
This month saw the airline announced an increase of 43,000 flights from Manchester to leisure destinations from next Summer - including to Orlando, Barbados and Las Vegas - increasing capacity by 11 per cent compared to Summer 2019.
It followed the airlines announcement in September that 30,000 additional seats would be made available from the North West for Winter 2019.
Mr Stower said the collapse of Thomas cook was a “genuinely sad” moment for the aviation industry.
“It’s a very incestuous industry and we all know people the that work for these travel and aviation companies and...it was really sad to see Thomas Cook go.”
