Virgin Atlantic has announced plans to resume scheduled passenger flights from the UK on 20 July.
The carrier, whose future has been in the balance since the coronavirus outbreak, will restart operations with flights from London Heathrow to New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
It said it would soon announce more destinations for August as countries begin to relax travel restrictions. It said it would continue dedicated cargo operations.
We’re taking to the skies again. We’ll be flying from @HeathrowAirport to Orlando, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Shanghai from the 20th July. And with our brand new health and safety measures in place, you can be sure you can fly safe, and fly well: https://t.co/BCk1jCKFcq pic.twitter.com/2bqqBtUD7h
— virginatlantic (@VirginAtlantic) June 4, 2020
Virgin said additional measures would be put in place at airports and onboard aircraft to ensure safety, including health questionnaires, temperature screening and packs including masks and hand sanitiser for passengers.
Juha Jarvinen, Virgin Atlantic’s chief commercial officer, said: “As the Covid-19 crisis stabilises and demand slowly returns, we are looking forward to welcoming our customers back onboard and flying them safely to their favourite destinations. To ensure the health and safety of our customers and our people, we’re introducing new measures at every point in the journey to offer peace of mind when taking to the skies with us.”
He added: “Our planned first flights will be to Orlando and Hong Kong on 20 July. However, we are monitoring external conditions extremely closely, in particular the travel restrictions many countries have in place, including the 14-day quarantine policy for travellers entering the UK.”
EasyJet said this week it would restart flights from the UK to Europe from July. British Airways has also said it will resume services in July, although it is reviewing it plans in the light of the government’s quarantine measures due to come into force next week.
