Virgin Atlantic Airways has announced the beginning of direct service between Manchester, England, and Las Vegas. The new service, which will operate onboard a Boeing 747-400 aircraft, will operate twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays, in addition to the airline's current air service between Gatwick and Las Vegas.

From Manchester, the aircraft will feature 14 Upper Class seats, 58 Premium Economy seats and 379 seats in Economy. Departing Manchester International Airport at 12:15 p.m., flight VS085 will arrive into Vegas' McCarran International Airport at 2:50 p.m. the same day. Return service via flight VS086 will depart at 5:20 p.m. to arrive into Manchester at 11:05 a.m. the next day.

In related news, Virgin Atlantic also announced the launch of its first Airbus A330 aircraft from Manchester to Orlando, the first of the airline's $2.2 billion fleet of 10 A330 planes. During its two-year introduction, the airline's first long-range, twin-engined aircraft will allow Virgin to fly more passengers to destinations including the U.S. East Coast, East and West Africa, the Middle East and India.