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Virgin to put summer 2021 flights on sale on Saturday
Virgin Atlantic has announced its flying programme for summer 2021, confirming that it has ditched flights from Gatwick in favour of operating services from London Heathrow and Manchester. It will also offer seasonal flights from Manchester and Belfast to Orlando.
As countries start to lift travel restrictions and demand for travel begins to return, Virgin Atlantic said it expected to steadily increase flying in the second half of the year, with a further, gradual recovery through 2021.
From late March 2021, Virgin will fly to 24 destinations with a fleet of wide-body, twin-engine aircraft comprising of A330-300s, 787-9s, A350-1000s, as well as A330-200s before they retire in early 2022 as planned.
Chief commercial officer Juha Jarvinen said: "As the Covid-19 crisis stabilises and demand gradually returns, we are looking forward to welcoming our customers back and flying them safely to their favourite destinations.
"We have taken the opportunity to pause, reflect and reshape our 2021 flying programme looking at efficiencies in our fleet and connectivity across our network, to ensure it is fit for the future, flying to the destinations we know our customers love to fly."
Its Tel Aviv service, launched last September, will increase to double daily from Heathrow, from where it will also fly to the US, the Caribbean, Hong Kong, Delhi, Shanghai, Johannesburg and, for winter only, Cape Town.
From Manchester it will fly to Atlanta, Barbados. Los Angeles, New York JFK and Orlando.
Seats go on sale on May 16.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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