Virgin Atlantic
Airline of the United Kingdom
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| June 30 2025 | Codeshare agreement with Hawaiian Airlines is set to end. |
| June 2025 | Virgin Australia expected to acquire Boeing 777-300 aircraft from Qatar Airways. |
| 2024 | Virgin Atlantic continued its growth trajectory, reaching 5.6 million passengers, 24,832 total flights, and maintaining a passenger load factor of 77.0%, with a fleet of 45 aircraft. |
| December 11 2024 | Qatar Airways announced direct routes to Doha from Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth on behalf of Virgin Australia, with ticket bookings opening for travels starting June 2025. |
| September 13 2024 | Virgin Australia announced switching 12 Boeing 737 MAX 10 orders to MAX 8 aircraft due to ongoing supply chain delays. |
| July 2024 | Virgin Atlantic placed an additional order of 7 Airbus A330-900 aircraft to replace their existing A330-300 fleet. |
| May 19 2024 | Approximately 200 former cabin crew filed a lawsuit against Virgin Atlantic for unfair dismissal during the COVID-19 pandemic redundancy process. |
| April 6 2024 | A ground collision occurred at Heathrow between a British Airways plane and a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787. Both aircraft suffered wing damage, though Heathrow reported no injuries or delays. |
| November 2023 | Virgin Atlantic announced plans to resume flights to Dubai after a four-year absence. |
| November 28 2023 | Virgin Atlantic successfully operated a test flight between London Heathrow and New York City using 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel on a Boeing 787-9, with no fare-paying passengers. |
| July 2023 | Virgin Australia deployed the Boeing 737 MAX 8 onto the Cairns–Tokyo Haneda international route after initial domestic operations. |
| June 28 2023 | Virgin Australia took delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX 8, becoming the second Australian operator of this aircraft type. |
| March 2 2023 | Virgin Atlantic officially became a part of SkyTeam airline alliance. |
| January 2023 | Christened a new Airbus A330-900 (G-VEII) as 'Queen of the Skies' in honor of the late Queen Elizabeth II. |
| 2022 | The full rebranding of Virgin Holidays to Virgin Atlantic Holidays was completed. |
| 2022 | Airbus A330-200 aircraft withdrawn from service after being impacted by COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 2022 | The airline showed signs of recovery post-pandemic, increasing passenger numbers to 4.4 million, total flights to 21,835, and improving passenger load factor to 73.4%. |
| October 2022 | Virgin Atlantic took delivery of its first Airbus A330-900neo, a more efficient version of the A330 family. |
| October 26 2022 | Virgin Atlantic flight VS76, an Airbus A330-300 from Orlando to Manchester, experienced an in-flight incapacitation of a female first officer. The flight continued with only one pilot at the controls. The cause of the pilot's illness remained undetermined, despite her reporting having only eaten a single Virgin Atlantic-provided sandwich in the 12 hours before the flight. |
| September 2022 | Virgin Atlantic announced new gender-neutral uniforms designed by Vivienne Westwood, allowing staff to choose between a bright red skirt suit with high heels or a burgundy trouser suit with a grey waistcoat. Staff can also wear a badge indicating their preferred pronoun. |
| September 2022 | Virgin Atlantic updated its ticketing systems to accommodate gender-neutral passports, allowing passengers to use 'U' or 'X' gender markers and the title 'Mx' on reservations, following passport policies in countries like the United States, India, Pakistan, and others. |
| September 27 2022 | Virgin Atlantic announced it would join the SkyTeam airline alliance in early 2023. |
| July 11 2022 | Virgin Atlantic announced plans to receive up to sixteen Airbus A330-900 aircraft, with the first plane expected to arrive in September 2022. |
| May 2 2022 | Virgin Atlantic flight VS3, an Airbus A330-343 (G-VWAG) bound for New York's JFK Airport, was forced to turn around over Ireland approximately 35 minutes after takeoff due to a rostering error involving a First Officer who had not fully completed company training. The CAA confirmed the pilot was fully qualified, and the flight resumed after replacing the first officer. |
| April 2022 | CEO Jayne Hrdlicka announced the reversal of the MAX 8 order cancellation, with at least 4 (later increasing to 8) MAX 8 jets to arrive by February 2023. |
| December 2021 | The airline leased two additional Airbus A350-1000s with deliveries planned for 2023 and 2024. |
| March 15 2021 | Virgin Atlantic flight 453, a Boeing 787-9 en route to Tel Aviv from Heathrow, was forced to return to Heathrow after a ground laser attack during takeoff. The flight crew issued an emergency Pan call after the captain lost sight in one eye. No other injuries were reported. |
| 2020 | Virgin Atlantic experienced a dramatic decline in business due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with passenger numbers dropping to 1.1 million, passenger load factor reducing to 49.3%, and total flights decreasing significantly to 6,673. |
| December 2020 | Virgin cancelled MAX 8 orders and revised its order to 25 MAX 10s, with planned delivery deferred to mid-2023. |
| September 4 2020 | Virgin Atlantic announced a second round of job cuts, totaling 1,150 across all departments, effectively halving its workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| August 25 2020 | Creditors approved a £1.2bn rescue package and debt restructuring for Virgin Atlantic. |
| August 4 2020 | Virgin Atlantic filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors in the US as part of a recapitalisation and debt restructuring plan. |
| August 4 2020 | Virgin Atlantic filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York as part of a £1.2 billion private refinancing package. |
| June 7 2020 | Virgin Atlantic commenced daily cargo-only flights between Brussels Airport and London Heathrow. |
| May 5 2020 | Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Virgin Holidays was announced to be rebranded as Virgin Atlantic Holidays. |
| May 5 2020 | Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Virgin Atlantic announced plans to lay off 3,000 staff, reduce fleet size to 35 by summer 2022, retire Boeing 747-400s, and discontinue operations from Gatwick. |
| March 2020 | Despite a £135 million investment from Connect Airways, Flybe files for administration and ceases operations due to reduced demand during the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of government financial support. |
| March 31 2020 | Last commercial flight of Boeing 747-400 aircraft due to early retirement from COVID-19 pandemic. |
| March 27 2020 | Virgin Atlantic was expected to seek a government bailout during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was reportedly backed by Rolls-Royce, Airbus, and Heathrow. |
| March 9 2020 | Virgin Atlantic retired its Airbus A340-600 fleet, with the final scheduled service taking place the day prior from Lagos to London Heathrow. |
| March 8 2020 | Last commercial flight of Airbus A340-600 aircraft due to early retirement from COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 2019 | Virgin Atlantic began allowing female flight attendants to not wear makeup and choose between trousers and skirts. |
| December 2019 | Richard Branson cancelled the sale of a 31% stake to Air France-KLM, with Virgin Group retaining its 51% shareholding. Virgin Atlantic also stopped flying to Dubai. |
| December 2019 | The proposed joint venture with Air France-KLM was abandoned without including a stake in the company. |
| November 2019 | Virgin Holidays established Orville Richard Burrell (Shaggy) as their Chief Caribbean Officer. |
| October 2019 | Retired the Airbus A340-600 named Emmeline Heaney (G-VYOU). |
| September 2019 | Virgin Atlantic announced plans to expand, which included acquiring Flybe and rebranding it as 'Virgin Connect', but these plans fell through when Flybe ceased operations in March 2020. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Virgin Atlantic fleet, Virgin Atlantic Holidays, Virgin Atlantic Flight 024, Virgin Australia & Virgin Atlantic, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.