The airline also says the credits were made easy to use across Virgin-operated flights and partner airline services. The remaining figure is still notable.

COVID disruption created an unusually long tail for aviation administration, and flight credits became one of the clearest reminders of how far the pandemic reached into airline operations, bookings and travel behaviour. Aviation angle: when a large pool of airline credit sits close to expiry, it can make near-term demand harder to read.

Some travel may be pulled forward because a credit is lapsing, rather than because normal route demand has shifted. That matters for airline scheduling, airport peaks and post-COVID network planning.

It is also a reminder that the operational recovery from pandemic disruption was not just about aircraft returning to the sky. The back-office clean-up, travel credit policies and passenger-facing processes have continued long after most regular flying resumed.

Related context: Aircraft charter

Source: Virgin COVID credits set to expire with $90m still unclaimed