For some months, Virgin Atlantic has curtailed its passenger flying programme, opting to operate as a cargo operation only. That change on the 20th July, when they will resume flying passengers again.
Virgin Atlantic Airbus A350-1000 at London Heathrow – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
It’s a welcome sign that the airline is readying to take passengers aboard its aircraft again. The airline will operate five routes to start with.
The magic routes are from London Heathrow to:
- Orlando (20th July)
- Hong Kong (20th July)
- Shanghai (21st July)
- New York-JFK (21st Just)
- Los Angeles (21st July)
Other dedicated cargo routes will continue to operate as is (including Tel Aviv, Chicago, Brussels, Johannesburg, Lagos and Miami).
Booking systems will be loaded with passenger flights during the next two weeks.
All Virgin Atlantic flights will depart from London Heathrow Terminal 2 as opposed to its normal home of Terminal 3.
With countries changing and tuning their entry policies, Virgin Atlantic is taking advantage of it. The airline plans to steadily increase passenger flying throughout the second half of 2020, with a further, gradual recovery through 2021 in line with customer demand.
Health and Well-being
It goes without saying, health and safety is an issue in these times. Virgin Atlantic is planning to enhance and thorough cleaning practices at check-in, boarding gates and on board (including the use of electrostatic spraying of high-grade disinfectant on-board in all our cabins and lavatories)
Safe distancing will also be adhered to wherever possible, particularly at check-in and boarding and where not possible, masks will be required.
The airline will also l provide a personal Health Pack for the well-being and comfort of all our customers, which will contain medical-grade face masks as a requirement to be worn on board, surface wipes and hand gel.
Passenger experience in terms of food will take a hit – with the airline offering a simplified hot foodservice onboard to minimise contact, enclosed from preparation in a COVID-safe, monitored environment directly to the customers’ seats.
Of course, travel to these destinations will be subject to authorities letting you in. You’ll need to check before you travel
In quotes
Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Virgin Atlantic commented:
“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.”
“Our planned first flights will be to Orlando and Hong Kong on the 20th 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. 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 a multi-layered approach of carefully targeted public health and screening measures, which will allow for a successful and safe restart of international air travel for passengers and businesses. We are planning to announce more destination restart dates in the next two weeks for the month of August.”
In regards to Health and Wellbeing Corneel Koster, Chief Customer Officer, Virgin Atlantic commented:
“Our teams have been working tirelessly to ensure that the health and safety of our airport and onboard experience offers peace of mind to our customers when travelling with us. Our medical experts are working closely with all relevant U.K. and international health and aviation authorities to ensure we adhere to, and on many occasions exceed the guidance they are offering, whilst continuously reviewing and updating the measures we have in place to keep our customers and teams safe.”
“We are carrying out health questionnaires before check in and are calling upon airport and health authorities to put temperature checks in place as part of a multi layered, end-to-end health screen. We have introduced a personal Health Pack for the comfort of all customers, containing medical grade face masks, surface wipes and hand gel, and are implementing a series of measures to limit customer-to-customer and customer-to-crew contact throughout the journey. While we will continuously review our measures, wearing a mask for the duration of the flight will initially be required. Our meticulous cleaning program ensures our planes are disinfected and amongst the cleanest in the skies, while we work with our airport partners to ensure sanitisation of customer touchpoints on the ground. Our customers are in safe hands and we are really looking forward to welcoming them back onboard from the 20th July.”
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