Virgin stops flights from London to Hong Kong due to closed skies over Russia

Virgin Atlantic, part of British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, yesterday informed on the termination of direct flights from London to Hong Kong. The company cited the closure of airspace over Russia as the main reason, which increased the duration of an already long flight by one to two hours.

“After careful analysis of the situation, we have made the difficult decision to suspend direct flights from London Heathrow to Hong Kong and close our Hong Kong office 30 years after the start of flights to this Asian hub,” Virgin Atlantic said in a statement. “The reasons for this decision were significant operational difficulties from -for the ongoing closure of Russian airspace. This has resulted in us not resuming flights from March 2023 as previously planned. We are very sorry that this decision may upset our loyal customers using this route. Anyone who has already booked a flight on it can receive a cash refund or a voucher for another Virgin Atlantic flight.”

Virgin Atlantic, like some other airlines such as American Airlines, stopped flights to Hong Kong during the pandemic, which has only recently begun to roll back anti-COVID restrictions. The same anti-covid restrictions have previously caused the suspension of Virgin flights to Hong Kong from Sydney and Melbourne.

Evgeniy Khvostik