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Virgin Atlantic suspends Shanghai flights amid coronavirus spread

Air
James Chapple
31 January 2020

Virgin Atlantic has joined British Airways in suspending flights to mainland China amid the country’s ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Emirates is preparing to return to Shanghai (Credit: iStock)

Juneyao Air will operate a three-times-weekly Manchester-Shanghai service (Credit: iStock)

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.