The carrier will resume routes to Orlando, Las Vegas and San Francisco following an 18-month gap, while new routes to the Bahamas and St Vincent in the Caribbean will be launched

Manchester and Edinburgh airports will also be boosted by the step-up in the airline’s transatlantic services.

Virgin’s Heathrow-San Francisco will resume on 2 October while the following month will see the return of daily Heathrow flights to Orlando, as well as Las Vegas services.

The relaunch of more US services comes after the Biden administration announced it would allow fully vaccinated Britons to visit the country again from early November, although a firm date has yet to be confirmed. This news prompted an immediate surge in bookings to the US for Virgin and other operators.

Virgin will also launch new routes from London to St Vincent on 13 October and then the Bahamas from 20 November. This will be followed by a London-St Lucia route from 18 December.

While Manchester airport will see the restart of Virgin’s operations on 8 October with flights to Islamabad followed by both Orlando and New York routes in November, and then Atlanta from December.  

Virgin will also launch its first international service from Edinburgh on 5 December with flights to Barbados – Scotland’s only non-stop service

Juha Jarvinen, chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic, said: “As global travel restrictions ease and connecting passengers with loved ones and colleagues becomes a reality, we’re looking forward to welcoming customers back on board and transporting them to a wider range of our destinations. 

“I’m delighted our customers can take advantage of our expanded route network, as we fly our customers safely once again.”