Originally Posted by
jp-mco
That's amazing that they're doing that but I'm guessing as they were empty outbound they wouldn't have been flights you could actually buy or be booked onto (ie. cancelled). It's just seems like an odd way of dealing with it - surely you just cancel the flight, issue refunds and move on. I wonder if they've run out of money.
All airlines have a duty to fulfil their contract, i.e. get you home, and if not then they need to give you another option. So yes, it is quite easily understandable that ferry flights out empty will be common even to the USA, so that people can be returned to the UK. This is why VS's schedule looks like it is still happening - but behind the scenes I am sure they are figuring out exactly how many flights are needed to what destination so they can do it as optimally as they can.