With the U.S. government's announcement that it will ease international travel restrictions in November, Virgin Atlantic Airways is adding back six of its U.S. routes that were suspended at the start of the pandemic, doubling its American operations.
Starting tomorrow, the U.K.-based airline is restarting flights from London Heathrow to San Francisco, to be followed by the restoration of flights from the British capital to Orlando and Las Vegas next month. November will also bring the resumption of flights from Manchester to New York and Orlando, then reconnecting with a route to Atlanta in December.
Virgin Atlantic, which is 49-percent owned by Delta Air Lines, presently operates only five transatlantic routes to the U.S.: from London Heathrow to New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta and Boston.
A surprise September announcement that the Biden administration was overhauling the U.S.' system for international travel and would lift the ban on foreign travel for fully vaccinated visitors starting in November immediately stoked demand, and Virgin Atlantic's bookings shot up 600 percent overnight.
Richard Branson's flagship airline is extending its policy of offering unlimited no-charge changes to flights and travel dates for its customers, who may be concerned about the risk of renewed lockdowns and border restrictions, and stretching its rebooking as far as April 2023.
The U.S. government hasn't set a specific start date for the lifting of current bans on arrivals of foreign nationals, saying only that it would occur sometime in early November. Bloomberg reported that officials who attended Thursday's virtual meeting between G7 nations' health and transport ministers suggested that the reopening might not occur until mid-month.
The airline also announced that it is expanding its Caribbean operations due to "a significant increase in consumer demand," and will be restoring routes from its London hub to St. Lucia, as well as adding flights to St. Vincent and the Bahamas. The carrier will also launch its first international flights from Edinburgh, Scotland, bound for Barbados.
Virgin Atlantic had filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. after the pandemic decimated air travel demand last year and avoided collapse in England thanks to a 1.2 billion-pound ($1.6 billion) rescue package provided by owners and lenders after the British government refused to devote state funds to a bailout.
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