Virgin Atlantic has today announced plans to launch the only direct flight from London Heathrow to Barbados.

The new, twice weekly service will launch on December 12th to help make Christmas in the Caribbean a reality for even more holidaymakers.

Flights will be on sale from Saturday.

The new flights will operate on Tuesdays and Saturdays as part of the winter 2017 schedule using an Airbus A330.

This new service means that Virgin Atlantic will now offer up to 11 Barbados flights per week from three UK Airports (Gatwick, Manchester and Heathrow).

Heathrow-Barbados will become Virgin Atlantic’s sixth new service to launch in 2017 – with flights to Seattle, Varadero (Cuba), Boston, New York and San Francisco launching in spring 2017.

In addition, Virgin Atlantic’s recently extended codeshare agreement with FlyBe will mean that customers from Scotland can now easily connect from Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports to Barbados via London Heathrow.

Shai Weiss, chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic commented: “The Caribbean has always been a core market for Virgin Atlantic and so we’re excited to announce we’re offering more choice to our customers with the option of flying from Heathrow, Gatwick or Manchester direct to Barbados.”