Virgin Atlantic is reinstating its full US schedule for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.
The carrier said the move follows “renewed customer confidence and a strong uptick in bookings” adding that bookings are up 50 per cent year-on-year.
From next week, flights to Seattle and Washington DC will take off while flights to New York, San Francisco and Atlanta will increase.
Virgin Atlantic flights to Seattle will operate five times weekly from London Heathrow beginning next week while services to Washington DC will also operate five times weekly.
From April the airline will increase frequency to destinations and reinstate services to key gateways including the addition of a third daily flight to Los Angeles.
The carrier also plans to operate Orlando flights from Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast.
The reintroduction of services, as well as the additional flights, comes on top of Virgin Atlantic’s recently announced new route to Austin, Texas, which will operate four times a week from 25 May.
Juha Jarvinen, chief commercial officer, Virgin Atlantic, said: “Following the relaxation of travel restrictions, we’ve seen demand increase to many of our global destinations, but particularly to our heartland in the USA. Our customers can’t wait to return.
“The restart of our Seattle and Washington DC services marks an important milestone, as we move into recovery and welcome our customers back on board to all the destinations they’ve missed. We’re simply not Virgin without the Atlantic and our growing transatlantic portfolio demonstrates why we’re the airline of choice to the USA.”