Leisure flights to US return for Europeans.
Earlier today, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic took off simultaneously at London’s Heathrow Airport for the first transatlantic flights carrying leisure travellers to the US since Covid-19 closed borders in March 2020.
A little after 8.50am local time – more than 600 days since the US travel ban was introduced – the two planes fully loaded with passengers raced down adjacent runways and took to the skies, as the airlines’ bosses described the moment as a “pivotal” for the battered industry.
For both carriers, the US market constitute the biggest part of their business – almost 40% for BA, with six flights scheduled Monday to John F. Kennedy International Airport, while 10 of Virgin’s 21 flights today are destined for the US.
To demonstrate the significance of the day, the British Airways flight was assigned the flight number BA001 – usually reserved for the supersonic Concorde plane.
Despite the celebrations, the return of the most lucrative route comes at a controversial time, as Covid-19 cases peak across the UK and Europe.
In the past two weeks, the United Kingdom recorded the highest number of new cases since July, with the National Health Service warning that there are 14 times the number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 than this time last year.
With the winter months looming, hospitalisation rates are expected to continue to rise.
Elsewhere in Europe, the rate of coronavirus infections has hit record levels in Germany.
According to the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases, the seven-day incidence rate – the number of people per 100,000 to be infected over the last week – rose to 201.1 on Monday, higher than a previous record of 197.6 in December last year.
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