Virgin Atlantic pledges to keep flying during industrial action

Virgin Atlantic has announced that it intends to operate all of its flights on 9 and 10 January and 16 and 17 January with the exception of three flights each day. These dates are affected by industrial action, which has been called by the Unite union.

On 9 January one outbound flight to New York (JFK), one return flight to Chicago and a return flight to Boston will be cancelled.

On 10 January one return flight to New York (JFK), one return flight to Chicago and a return flight to Boston will be cancelled.

On 16 January one outbound flight to New York (JFK), one return flight to Chicago and a return flight to Nairobi will be cancelled.

On 17 January one return flight to New York, one return flight to Chicago and one return flight to Nairobi will be cancelled.

As a result of the action one New York inbound flight will be cancelled on both 11 and 18 January. (See Notes to Editors for full details)

Steve Ridgway, Chief Executive of Virgin Atlantic, said:

“Our main priority now is to ensure that we can get as many of our passengers to their destinations as possible. We do not want to let them down so we have put in place thorough contingency plans which will enable us to run nine out of ten flights on each of the days affected by the action.

“I would like to apologise to our passengers whose travel plans may be disrupted and reassure those who are travelling with us that our number one priority is to get them to their destination.”

Passengers who are booked on any flights which are cancelled due to the industrial action are permitted to cancel their bookings and receive a full refund, regardless of any ticket restrictions.

For passengers who are flying on the dates affected by the industrial action and who would prefer to rebook their flights for another date or route they are able to do this subject to availability in the same ticket class. We advise those passengers to contact their travel agent where they booked their ticket.

Passengers are advised to get up to date information on Virginatlantic.com.

All other Virgin Atlantic flights continue to operate as normal. Virgin Atlantic would like to apologise to passengers who are affected by the industrial action.