The hypocrisy of Virgin Atlantic’s flights to Saudi Arabia

I’m always a little perplexed when people say they wish they could travel through time. Because you can – nowadays, it’s never been easier. Hop on a plane and you can visit places that are stuck in the past or places that are stuck in the future. And even some that are a bit of both. 

Virgin Atlantic is now offering daily flights to Saudi Arabia, with Heathrow to Riyadh return flights starting at a very reasonable £447. Richard Branson has pulled off a deal with Saudia, the national flag carrier, enabling you to travel on to Mecca and Jeddah if you fancy it. This is all part of Saudi’s attempt to rebrand itself as a tourist destination, which also includes the construction, at mind-boggling expense, of a new six-runway, seven-terminal hub at King Khalid airport – which certainly throws thirty-odd years of fuss, dither and political knicker-wetting about a single extra runway at Heathrow into sharp perspective. 

But the most interesting thing, for me, about this new Virgin venture is that this is the airline that has fallen over itself in recent years to brand itself as ‘LGBT’-friendly.