According to Bloomberg, British carrier Virgin Atlantic will not resume flights to and from Hong Kong International Airport. It will also close its commercial offices in the special administrative region, one of Asia’s major financial centres.
It is the first major airline to effectively withdraw from Hong Kong. American Airlines had suspended all services by the end of 2021. The US airline has said in recent weeks that it is constantly reviewing its global network, but has no news on resuming its connections to Hong Kong.
In a statement, Virgin Atlantic explained that several factors played a role in the decision. One of them is the flight time between Hong Kong and its London Heathrow base. Since the onset of Russian airspace restrictions and closures, European carriers have had to rethink (and in some cases, suspend) their routes between Europe and the Far East.
The Richard Branson-owned airline, which has not operated any passenger flights to Hong Kong since December, would be no exception. In the event of resuming scheduled services, flights would have to avoid overflying Russia and would extend their duration, a situation that would increase operating costs.
In this regard, the company explained that “significant operational complexities due to the ongoing Russian airspace closure have contributed to the commercial decision not to resume flights in March 2023 as planned”. However, Virgin Atlantic noted that the London-Hong Kong route was already in declining profitability prior to the start of the pandemic.
Moreover, the company cited the termination of Virgin Australia’s services between Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne in 2019 as another cause. The discontinuation of flights reduced the number of connecting passengers to and from Australia, which accounted for a valuable percentage of its business.
Further details are not yet known about the situation of cabin crew and city offices staff, who will be affected by the measure.
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