Virgin Suspend 10 Flight Routes As Covid Causes Massive Staff Shortages

Virgin Australia have made the decision to cancel at least one quarter of their flights across January and February as the Omicron variant causes massive staff shortages and depletes demand for flights.

The airline announced they would be suspending 10 of their flights from the end of January as staff continue to enter into isolation with Covid or as close contacts.

There have been 10 flight routes impacted by the decision including Virgin’s one international flight from Sydney to Fiji.

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In a statement, Virgin Chief Executive Jayne Hrdlicka said there would be massive changes made to scheduling in the future as the airline learns to function alongside Covid.

“Virgin Australia is dedicated to the communities that we serve and will resume these flights as soon as possible,” she said.

“Although we don’t know when this wave will pass, we do know that as we make the shift to living with COVID-19 there will continue to be changes in all our lives.”

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to any guest impacted by the changes to our flight schedule during this time.”

Other airlines appear to be functioning as normal with Jetstar only forced to cancel a small number of flights over January and moving any effected customers onto alternative flights. 

Virgin have announced that they are backing the government’s push to change isolation requirements, allowing essential workers who are deemed close contacts to return to work ahead of schedule.  

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also supported a move to have critical supply chain workers exempt from full isolation requirements as supermarkets struggle to fill shelves.  

Mr Morrison revealed that he hopes to extend this exemption out to aviation staff.

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