Virgin Atlantic considers reopening UK-US travel in May

UK airline Virgin Atlantic said it was considering reopening UK-US travel on 17 May after the losses that it incurred in 2020.

The carrier registered a $917m pretax loss for last year, mostly due to the pandemic.

Virgin said that passenger numbers dropped 80% when compared to 2019 after Covid-19 brought global travel and tourism to a halt.

Transatlantic travel accounted for 80% of Virgin’s revenue before the pandemic.

UK restrictions state that 17 May is the earliest possible date at which travel can restart, but government has not yet clarified which countries people can go to.

"With world leading vaccination programmes in both the UK and US, and evidence to support safe reopening through testing, there is a clear opportunity to open up travel and no reason to delay beyond May 17," Virgin's chief executive Shai Weiss said.

For its last financial year, Virgin said revenue came in at 868m pounds, down 70% on 2019, which forced it to slash costs, with the company shedding 41% of its workforce and retiring some older aircraft early.