UK airline Virgin Atlantic has announced its decision to permanently halt flights on the London Heathrow-Tel Aviv route. The airline said, “Customers affected by the cancellation of the route and who booked their flight directly through Virgin Atlantic will receive a notification by email. We apologize for the inconvenience and continue to work to provide the highest level of service even during this transition period.”
RELATED ARTICLES
Tel Aviv – London fares to fall as British Airways resumes flights
Turkish carriers forego slots at Ben Gurion Airport
The carrier added that its codeshare partnership with El Al will continue, thus enabling a continuous connection between Tel Aviv and London Heathrow, with up to four daily flights. The partnership will provide customers with connection flights to destinations in the UK and the US.
Virgin Atlantic suspended operations to Israel on October 11, 2023, shortly after the war broke out, and has since postponed its return several times. The company even announced that it would return in September 2024 with seven weekly flights (which were planned to include a stop in Larnaca en route), but following the escalation in the security situation, it backtracked this decision.
The latest postponement was in November 2024, when the company postponed its return to October 2025, claiming that the reason for the continued postponement of operations was “challenges arising from the availability of spare parts for the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, which are adapted to the Boeing 787-9 aircraft used by the company, which requires changes to the flight schedule for 2025.”
So far, two UK airlines have announced the resumption of flights to Israel. British Airways, which restarted flights to and from Israel at the start of April and low-cost carrier easyJet, which will resume flights at the start of June. Before the war, Virgin Atlantic operated 14 weekly flights to Israel.
The first Israeli CEO of an international airline
Since 2019, Virgin Atlantic’s CEO has been Shai Weiss, the first-ever Israeli to serve as CEO of an international airline. He previously served as commercial manager, CFO, and head of the airline’s investment fund. Virgin Atlantic recent returned to profitability for the first time since 2016, after then nearly going bankrupt during the Covid pandemic.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on April 28, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
