VSbulletin COVID-19 HM Government Travel Restriction & Red List Update - 5 Dec 2021

• 06 December 2021
• News
• Virgin Atlantic

The UK Government has confirmed  that from 0400 GMT on Tuesday 7 December, anyone aged 12 years and over travelling to the UK will be required to take a pre-departure COVID-19 test, regardless of their vaccination status, within 2 calendar days of departure. This test can be a PCR or antigen (lateral flow) test. If customers need a helping hand with testing options and providers, please refer them to our  help centre. Full UK entry requirements can be found on the UK Travel Advice  page. 

It has also been confirmed that Nigeria will be added to the UK’s  Red list of countries from 0400 GMT on Monday 6 December.  

After this point, if arriving customers have been in or through Nigeria or the other Red list countries in the previous 10 days, they will be refused entry to the UK, unless they are a British or Irish National, or have residence rights in the UK. From 0400 GMT on Monday 6 December, arrivals from Nigeria will need to have booked a managed hotel quarantine package for 10 days, before boarding a flight from Lagos, citing the invoice reference number in your UK Passenger Locator Form. We recommend that customers book their hotel quarantine package as soon as possible to ensure they secure it for their desired dates. Full details of what to do when arriving from a Red list country can be found here.  
 
Red list rules do not apply to customers that are transiting to another international flight at London Heathrow where they do not pass border control, but they must check the entry rules of their final destination. 
 
We’re currently reviewing our wider schedule of Lagos operations and recommend that any customers booked to travel to or from Nigeria check their flight status on  www.virginatlantic.com.
 
We understand the difficulties that the inclusion of Nigeria on the Red list may pose to our customers. Where a Virgin Atlantic customer is unable to travel for any reason, we offer as much choice and flexibility as possible to help you change or amend their plans, set out in our flexible booking policy.
 
Please check here regularly for updates and here for specific flight status.  

Please ensure the latest traveller contact information is available within the booking so the latest instructions reach the traveller via SMS and email.
 
Sales Support Call Volumes
The latest Government Covid-19 update has had a significant impact on our call volumes so we just wanted to advise there are longer than usual wait times to get through on our Sales Support phone lines.

Where possible we would kindly request that you contact us by email at sales.support@fly.virgin.com and the team will continue to work hard to respond to your queries within 72 hours between Monday and Friday. As always we are 100% committed to supporting you and your customers, so please bear with us at this busy time.

Our Customer Centre are busy helping customers who have booked directly with Virgin Atlantic, and this means they are unable to respond to queries from our agency partners or our mutual customers.

For all other VSbulletin information, please visit https://www.vsflyinghub.com/en/vsbulletin