Virgin Atlantic suspends Shanghai flights amid coronavirus spread

The carrier’s daily Heathrow-Shanghai service will be placed on hold for two weeks with immediate effect, Virgin confirmed late on Thursday (30 January).

Its last return flight from Shanghai, flight VS251, is scheduled to arrive at Heathrow at around 4.30pm on Saturday (1 February).

Virgin had initially planned to suspend its China flights from Sunday (2 February) but quickly brought forward the cancellations on Thursday evening.

The move follows the World Health Organization’s decision to declare coronavirus a global health emergency.