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Virgin Atlantic outlines return to a further 17 destinations
Virgin Atlantic has unveiled plans to restart operations to an additional 17 destinations, including Tel Aviv, Miami, San Francisco and Barbados from August.
The carrier announced earlier this month its intention to resume Heathrow flights from 20 July on routes such as New York JFK and Los Angeles.
Virgin’s network will be expanded further in August, beginning with Heathrow-Barbados on 1 August as well as services from London to Shanghai and San Francisco on 4 August.
From 9 August, Virgin will return to Tel Aviv with Miami flights resuming on 18 August, Lagos on 23 August and Atlanta on 25 August.
As part of its flying resumption, Virgin will operate temporarily from Heathrow Terminal 2, due to the airport’s consolidation strategy and return to T3 when demand allows.
The airline has also delayed the restart of its Heathrow-Orlando service until 24 August, with the route subject to approval by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Seasonal services from Glasgow and Belfast to Orlando will resume for selected dates in summer 2021.
In September, services will restart from Heathrow to Washington, Seattle and Las Vegas as well as Mumbai, Delhi and Johannesburg.
A month later Heathrow-Boston will resume as will Heathrow flights to Montego Bay, Antigua, Grenada and Tobago (via Antigua), as well as Manchester to Barbados.
Chief commercial officer, Juha Jarvinen, said: “As countries around the world begin to relax travel restrictions, we look forward to welcoming our customers back onboard and flying them safely to many destinations across our network.”
Jarvinen said Virgin was “monitoring external conditions extremely closely” including the 14-day quarantine policy for travellers entering the UK.
“We know that as the Covid-19 crisis subsides, air travel will be a vital enabler of the UK’s economic recovery. Therefore, we are calling for UK government to continually review its quarantine measures and instead look at a multi-layered approach of carefully targeted public health and screening measures, including air bridges, which will support a successful and safe restart of international air travel for passengers and businesses," he said.
Virgin previously announced additional health and hygiene measures to offer peace of mind to customers in the airport and onboard.
These include enhanced cleaning practices at check-in, boarding gates and onboard as well as providing a personal health pack for customers containing face masks, surface wipes and hand gel.
Tom Parry
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