Due to the shutdown of airspaces in Europe, Virgin Atlantic will not resume its flights between London Heathrow (LHR) and Hong Kong (HKG).
After over 30 years of linking Hong Kong and London, the decision to discontinue the route has been made. The carrier had intended to restore the route in March 2023, even though it had been suspended since December 2021.
It was a “difficult decision,” according to the UK-based carrier. For the summer of 2023, it will employ the additional capacity for other locations on its network.
“Significant operational complexities due to the ongoing airspaces closure have contributed to the commercial decision not to resume flights in March 2023 as planned, which have already been paused since December 2021,” it said in a statement on October 5, 2022.
For instance, avoiding airspaces would increase the flight duration from LHR to HKG by around 60 minutes and from LHR to HKG by about 1 hour 50 minutes. Many European airlines have been impacted by the shutdown of airspaces, Finnair in particular.
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