Confirmed: Virgin Atlantic Airlines reinstates direct flights on SA route Virgin Atlantic Airlines will resume scheduled passenger flights to South Africa later this month. After a lengthy period without direct scheduled flights between South Africa and the United Kingdom, Virgin Atlantic Airlines is set to resume services to Johannesburg in the next few weeks. The discovery of the 501y.v2 variant in South Africa in December last year resulted in the UK government imposing a travel ban on South Africa. All airlines operating flights between the two countries were obligated to suspend their services as a result of the directive issued by the UK government.