Virgin Atlantic to resume New York flights

Virgin Atlantic said today it would be resuming its flights to and from storm-lashed New York with its first flight due to leave Heathrow around noon.

Virgin is also putting on an extra flight which will leave Heathrow for New York around 1.50pm today and fly back from the hurricane-hit city later.

Virgin had to axe its VS18 service from Newark and its VS26 flight from New York today. These would have landed at Heathrow this evening.

However, the airline was able to operate normal services today to and from Boston and Washington DC.

A Virgin spokeswoman said: "We continue to thank our passengers for their patience and apologise for the inconvenience caused to their journey.

"We advise all passengers to check our website www.virginatlantic.com for the latest updates and advice on rebooking their flights."

British Airways had to axe most of its services to New York and neighbouring Newark today, but hopes to get flights away to both cities later today.

It will be the first time since Sunday afternoon that BA has been able to operate to New York and Newark due to superstorm Sandy.

BA was able to operate normal services today to four other US east coast cities - Boston, Baltimore, Washington DC and Philadelphia.

BA said: "Customer safety with regards to Hurricane Sandy remains our highest priority and following advice from the US authorities we are cancelling the majority of flights to and from New York and Newark on Wednesday.

"Customers with confirmed flights only should come to the airport. We are doing all we can to help customers whose flights have been cancelled and will look to use larger aircraft on some routes when the full flying schedule resumes to help get customers to their correct destination as quickly as we can.

"Customers should continue to check ba.com for the very latest information."

PA