Virgin Atlantic expects early-summer passenger demand recovery

Virgin Atlantic has written off the normally busy Easter travel season and now expects a recovery in passenger numbers to begin in May-June, CE Shai Weiss has indicated. Noting that he has been forced to repeatedly push back his expectations for a recovery in travel demand, Weiss now foresees “very little travel in the coming months” with a “a summer resumption [now] more realistic”. He added that Virgin Atlantic’s passenger numbers would not return to 2019’s levels until 2023/24, despite expectations of pent-up demand. Even when traffic does return, “the mix will be different”, says Weiss, predicting an “inherent reduction in business travel”, although some corporate travel will still be necessary given the limitations of video conferencing, something he believes the pandemic has underlined. Leisure travel is likely to have greater resilience over the long term, given the public’s “tremendous pent-up demand” to return to the skies.<br/>