The insurance policy with Allianz Assistance offers comprehensive cover in the event a customer or travel companion becomes ill with Covid-19 while on a trip. It is applied automatically on each booking.

Emergency medical costs, associated expenses such as transport and accommodation and repatriation up to £500,000 are included, as well as costs of up to £3,000 if a customer is denied boarding or held in quarantine.

Travellers are covered even if they visit another destination on the same overseas trip.

The offer is valid until 31 March 2021 and include flights on joint venture partners Delta and Air France/KLM if ticketed on Virgin. Cover starts at the point of booking and ends 12 hours after the final flight arrival. 

Virgin’s chief commercial officer Juha Jarvinen said: “We believe this complimentary cover will provide some added reassurance for our customers as they start to plan trips further afield.

“It applies in parallel to existing travel insurance policies which may now exclude Covid-19, and provides comprehensive cover for coronavirus, recognising the needs of our customers as we restart services.”