Hannah Swift new Virgin Atlantic Caribbean Country Manager

Virgin Atlantic has announced the appointment of Hannah Swift as the airline’s Country Manager for the Caribbean.

She is responsible for the airline’s daily commercial activity in the region, including sales, marketing, reservations and ticketing.

“I am thrilled to be taking on this role for Virgin Atlantic. As travel restrictions around the world start to relax and demand for international travel increases, the Caribbean will play an important part in Virgin Atlantic’s recovery,” Swift said.

“We’re anticipating huge demand for travel to the Caribbean as customers look to escape the UK winter for some Caribbean sun or as they travel to visit friends and loved ones. We look forward to welcoming our customers to the region and flying them safely to their favourite Caribbean destination.

“Myself and my team look forward to working closely with our partners and customers in the Caribbean. I’m excited to establish and deepen relationships with our key partners as we continue to build trust in the Virgin Atlantic brand,” she added.

Swift moved to Barbados in 2014 and spent five years in an advertising agency growing the online presence of leading Caribbean brands, such as Flow and Banks Beer, prior to joining Virgin Atlantic as Marketing Manager in 2019 and now as Country Manager. She has a degree in Geology & Science Communication from Royal Holloway, University of London and owned her own business in the UK focusing on online marketing strategy.

Virgin Atlantic is currently flying to Barbados, Antigua, Jamaica and Grenada and expects to restart Tobago, Havana and Manchester to Barbados services in the coming months.

Flight schedules will increase throughout 2020 and 2021, in line with consumer demand. In addition, the airline said it looked forward to launching new services to St Vincent in June 2021.

Virgin Atlantic’s Caribbean services now fly from London Heathrow, the UK’s only hub airport, and customers will be able to join a vast option of connecting services on the Virgin Atlantic international network or disembark at the UK capital city.

As Virgin Atlantic aims to establish itself as the sustainability leader, it will fly a modern fleet of wide-body, twin-engine aircraft comprising of A330-300s, 787-9s, A350-1000s as well as A330-200s, before they retire in early 2022 as planned. The airline’s seven 747-400s will no longer be in use. By 2022, the simplified, greener fleet will comprise of 36 twin engine aircraft reducing CO2/RTK emissions by an estimated further 10 per cent, building on the 18 per cent efficiency already achieved between 2007 and 2019.