Virgin Atlantic to restart passenger flights in July
Embattled airline Virgin Atlantic has today announced that it will restart some passenger flights from July.
The carrier said that from 20 and 21 July, it would resume services from London Heathrow to Orlando, Hong Kong, Shanghai, New York JFK and Los Angeles.
It added that more routes would be announced in the next two weeks for the month of August.
In a statement, Virgin said that it would increase passenger flying throughout the second half of 2020, with a further, gradual recovery through 2021 in line with customer demand.
In April the carrier suspended all of its services as the coronavirus crisis hammered demand, forcing airlines around the world to ground planes.
Last month it had been reported that Virgin would not be able to begin flying again until August if the UK government went ahead with its quarantine plan, which was confirmed yesterday.
Virgin’s chief commercial officer Juha Jarvinen said that the airline would be “monitoring external conditions extremely closely, in particular the travel restrictions many countries have in place including the 14 day quarantine policy for travellers entering the UK”.
The airline has been one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis, with border closures severely impacting the lucrative transatlantic market in which it specialises.
Virgin has been in long-running talks with the government over potential support, and last month announced it would cut a third of its workforce and quit its Gatwick base due to the virus’ impact.
Over the past few days several members of the aviation sector have announced comeback plans, with London City Airport set to reopen by the end of June.
Low-budget carrier Easyjet announced it would operate 50 per cent of its routes from July, a figure that will rise to 75 per cent in August.
More to follow.