Without a great deal of fanfare, but with a note on their web site, Virgin Atlantic announced this week that it was stopping service to Sydney.

The flight which operates from Heathrow, through to Hong Kong and on to Sydney.

Craig Kreeger, Chief Executive at Virgin Atlantic said:

“We intend to withdraw our services between Sydney and Hong Kong. Despite the best efforts of our employees, external factors such as increasing costs and a weakening Australian dollar have affected our profitability.”

“These are still difficult times for the airline industry and as part of our strategy to operate more efficiently we need to deploy our aircraft to routes with the right level of demand to be financially viable

Passengers travelling after 5 May are being rebooked on alternative carriers, presumably Cathay Pacific.

Australian members of Virgin’s frequent flyer scheme as encouraged to use up their miles before the airline pulls service!

Virgin say:

We would operate our published schedule until our proposed last flight, which is:

• Sydney to Hong Kong on 05 May 2014, and
• Hong Kong to Sydney on the 04 May 2014. 

If you are booked on these flights after 5 May, I suggest a call to Virgin is a very good move come Monday.