31 AUGUST 2020

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Article from BTNews 31 AUGUST 2020

Virgin Atlantic – full update

On the financial front the recapitalisation of Virgin Atlantic (VS) is likely to be approved (all things being well) on 4 September after a UK court hearing on the 2nd and US court hearing on 3rd. This follows a significant milestone last Tuesday (25 August) when it secured the support of all four creditor classes who voted on the plan.

The airline, now in its temporary Heathrow T2 home is providing free-of-charge Covid-19 insurance cover for all new and existing bookings, for customers travelling until 31 March 2021.  It is currently flying to Barbados, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Shanghai.  Upper Class and eligible passengers can now avail themselves of the Premium Plaza lounge in T2.

A whole new multitude of flights are planned for September but these do rely on various approvals, including the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  VS says it is planning to resume: Delhi (1st), Tel Aviv (6th), Atlanta (15th), Mumbai (16th), Lagos (currently the 24th but this may be brought forward as Nigeria has confirmed an opening of flights from last week. It will open to international flights on 29 August).

In October, it is planning to restart as follows: Montego Bay (2nd), Orlando from Manchester and Heathrow (6th – subject to CDC approval), Johannesburg (17th), Washington (25th), Seattle (25th), San Francisco (25th), Boston (25th).

Virgin has also announced Islamabad (Pakistan) as a new service starting in December from both Heathrow and Manchester.

https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/news/coronavirus/free-global-cover-for-covid-19.html

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OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum


Barry Graham, Washington, DC

Last time I looked, Virgin said that they were not offering special meals except for London/Tel Aviv where all the meals are kosher. I wrote to Virgin and got a very unsympathetic response. Apart from the discomfort on long flights that this will cause people with special diets, it's having an impact on the suppliers of those meals too. This even applies in Upper Class. I don't know how they can justify not serving food to a customer paying for a first class ticket.


Paul Jones, Crawley

Let us all hope that Virgin gets the go-ahead. I speak for others at Crawley that whilst it is bad news that the airline has deserted Gatwick at least it is flying. May she soon return.


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