Virgin Atlantic LAX lounge open, VS cuts routes

Great new Los Angeles Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse with copper lined bar and views of the Hollywood hills.

Virgin Atlantic has opened a brand new lounge at Los Angeles. Light, bright and airy, it offers fantastic views, and great cocktail bar.

Slade Architecture designed the 4,000 square foot lounge, which boasts original works by British artists, a slight tint of gold which the airline assures us "reflect the famous L.A. sunshine".

The Virgin Atlantic food and drink concept for the Clubhouse itself takes inspiration from the clean, healthy west coast lifestyle. The idea is to have a tasting snack menu, which the airline says "allows customers to taste and share several dishes, creating a relaxed, sociable atmosphere".

The menu comes from Hinoki and the Bird, one of LA's most exciting and innovative restaurants, which capitalises on the produce available throughout California.

On one wall there is an installation by California-based digital artist Diana Reichenbach, whose work is shown alongside a hand drawn mural from British artist, Vic Lee.

A key part of the Los Angeles Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse is inevitably the copper lined bar, featuring natural Californian produce and plants as well as Virgin Atlantic's iconic bar service featuring fabulous cocktails.

Californian brand The Juicery provide healthy juice options infused with seeds and spices.

The new Los Angeles Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse is unusually in Los Angeles Terminal 2, the original international terminal of LAX, built in 1962. Almost all other international airlines are in the Tom Bradley Terminal (TBIT).

It occupies the old Air New Zealand lounge space, and as such it has great panoramic windows overlooking the iconic Hollywood sign and the mountains beyond.

Unlike the New York JFK and London Heathrow Clubhouses, the Los Angeles Clubhouse won't have a spa.

Virgin Atlantic has invested over £2.5m in its latest Clubhouse lounge, which occupies 4,000 square feet and will be the first time that the airline has brought its award-winning Clubhouse concept to Los Angeles.

Up until now the only West Coast Clubhouse was in San Francisco, and Virgin Atlantic used the old Air New Zealand lounge, which was in this space, with the LAX Virgin America Loft in Terminal 3 just for Virgin America domestic and Virgin Australia international customers, although Virgin Atlantic used this lounge as an overflow while they built the lounge.

The new Virgin Atlantic Los Angeles clubhouse lounge is open from 1500 to 2200 daily.

To celebrate the opening of the lounge, Virgin will also start offering a complimentary chauffeur drop-off service for Upper Class passengers flying out of LAX.

Virgin Atlantic are now increasing flights to Los Angeles, and fly three times a day. One of these flights will be operated by the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, the airlines latest aircraft.

San Francisco also gets a near doubling (on five days) of service, as does New York (daily), Atlanta (in the summer) and Miami (in the winter).

However, in order to increase flights to the USA, Virgin Atlantic has cut a number of routes and closed clubhouses.

The Tokyo Narita route has been axed, and the Virgin Narita clubhouse closed. Virgin are also no longer flying to Mumbai (Bombay) and has axed the seasonal service that in winter flew to Cape Town, and in summer to Vancouver. The last flight was on 27 April 2015.