, usually referred to as '''Virgin Atlantic''', is one of the airlines of
Richard Branson 's
Virgin Group , operating long-haul routes between
London and
North America , the
Caribbean ,
Africa ,
Asia and
Australia . Its main base is
London Heathrow (LHR), with a hub at
London Gatwick (LGW).
Virgin's predecessor, British Atlantic Airways, operated flights from the UK to the
Falkland Islands starting in
1982 . Branson purchased the airline in 1984 and began flights to North America on
June 22 ,
1984 , using a single
Boeing 747-200 on scheduled service between London Gatwick and
Newark , taking over the small market share of
Freddie Laker 's failed "
Skytrain " operation.
Virgin has always been a competitor and rival of
British Airways . In January
1991 the
UK Civil Aviation Authority opened the door for Virgin to operate from Heathrow and services were started from July 1991, one of the major causes of the BA "dirty tricks" campaign against Virgin. In 1992 BA's PA director
David Burnside published an article in ''BA News'' which argued that Branson protestations against British Airways were merely for publicity. Branson sued British Airways for libel. BA settled out of court when its lawyers unearthed evidence of the extraordinary lengths the company went to "kill off" Virgin. BA was faced with a legal bill of up to £3m, damages to Sir Richard of £500,000 and a further £110,000 to his airline. Branson divided his £500,000 amongst his staff in the so-called "BA bonus", each receiving £166.
In the 1990s, Virgin Atlantic jets were painted with the words "No-Way BA/AA" in opposition to the attempted merger between British Airways and
American Airlines . In
1997 , following British Airways' announcement that it was to remove the
Union Jack from its tailfins in favour of
World Images , Virgin took advantage of the controversy provoked by introducing a union flag design on the winglets of its aircraft, and changed the red dress on the "Scarlet Lady" on the nose of its aircraft to the union flag also. Relations with British Airways improved considerably (though rivalry continued) with the arrival of
Rod Eddington as BA CEO. Eddington replaced
Robert Ayling , who was a key player in the dirty tricks affair.
49% of Virgin Atlantic was sold to
Singapore Airlines in December
1999 for £600.25 million.
In
August 2002 , Virgin became the first airline to begin flights with the
Airbus A340-600 . Rolls-Royce have won all recent engine competitions for Virgin aircraft; the company's
Trent-500's will power the A340s and the Trent 900 will power A380s on order.
On
19 June 1984 , during the final CAA test flight before full licensing, an engine caught fire due to bird ingestion. The aircraft landed safely.
On
June 1 ,
1996 , flight VS007 from
London to
Los Angeles made an emergency landing at
Iqaluit after a passenger had a heart attack. One of the 747's engines hit a fuel pump on the tarmac as it was taxiing, causing serious damage to the aircraft and a fuel spill. The aircraft had its engines repaired and left four days after the accident.
On
5 November 1997 , after numerous attempts to shake the jammed main landing gear of
Airbus A340 -300 G-VSKY failed, the aircraft made an emergency landing at
London Heathrow Airport . The aircraft and the runway were damaged as the landing gear collapsed. The aircraft was evacuated safely causing only minor injuries.
On
8 February 2005 , onboard an
Airbus A340 -600 aircraft en route from
Hong Kong to
London , the fuel control computer system caused a loss of automatic fuel transfer between tanks. The left outboard engine lost power, and shortly after the right outboard engine also began to falter until the crew began crossfeeding fuel manually. The crew diverted to
Amsterdam , where a safe landing was made (ref: Flight International, July 2005).
The airline has three classes of service: Economy, Premium Economy and Upper Class. Premium Economy provides a separate check-in, a larger seat with more leg room than Economy, and a welcome glass of champagne. Virgin Atlantic terms its business-class fare offering "Upper Class". Upper Class passengers can request complimentary limousine pick-up and drop-off at the airport, and at their destination, although the limousine is not available to those who purchase the cheaper "Z" coded Upper Class fare. At the airport, Upper Class passengers can use Virgin's clubhouse lounge. On board and in the Heathrow and Gatwick clubhouses, passengers can avail themselves of massage services. Unlike some international carriers, Virgin gives free personal amenity kits, including toothbrush, pen, earplugs and eyemask, to passengers in all three classes. Virgin also pioneered seat-back personal TVs in all classes, and have claimed for some time to be upgrading all their aircraft to an Audio/Video on Demand (AVOD) system called V:Port.
The V:Port systems currently in use offer a choice of approximately 50 full length feature films, 60 audio CDs, and around 200 hours of television shows. Also featured are video games, some of which can be played competitively against other passengers.
See Also: Virgin Atlantic destinations
Just over half of Virgin's flights leave from
London Heathrow , with the remainder leaving from
London Gatwick . There are also daily services to Orlando from
Manchester International Airport and a once weekly service to Bridgetown (starting 13 November 2006) and St Lucia (starting 16 November 2006).
Virgin Atlantic's Fleet consists of the following
As Of March 2006 :
In November
2003 Virgin introduced the Upper Class Suite, which is the longest totally flat bed in Business Class. The Upper Class Suite is fitted on all Virgin's A340-600 and 747-400 aircraft. Of the A340-300 aircraft in the fleet, all except one have been fitted with the Upper Class Suite, with the last one to go in for a refit shortly. As of
December 2005 , A340-300 G-VBUS is on wet-lease to
Virgin Nigeria Airways and G-VSUN is listed to follow according to filings with the
United States Department Of Transportation . 747s are used on all routes from Gatwick and Manchester. From Heathrow 747s are used on routes to New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami and San Francisco along with A340s which are also used for the remaining routes.
Source:
{Link without Title}
The following aircraft are on order, and have had registrations assigned.
- G-VFIT (Dancing Queen) A340-600 (Suite) with V:PORT entertainment system. To be delivered in May 2006.
- G-VFIZ (Bubbles) A340-600 (Suite) with V:PORT entertainment system. To be delivered in July 2006.
- G-VHIP (tba.) A340-600 (Suite) with V:PORT entertainment system. To be delivered in August 2006.
- G-VYOU (tba.) A340-600 (Suite) with V:PORT entertainment system. To be delivered in October 2006.
- G-VXXL (Virgin Lady) A380-800. To be delivered in 2008.
Virgin Atlantic has ordered 6
Airbus A380 aircraft with options on 6 more. The first delivery is expected to enter service in March
2008 and the aircraft will be used on services from London to Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Sydney and Tokyo. The option of using the A380 on charter services, eg Orlando, is being explored (ref: Airliner World, March 2005).
Virgin's aircraft are given female names such as "Ladybird", "Island Lady", and "Ruby Tuesday". Many are named after destinations on the Virgin route network, such as "Maiden Tokyo" and "California Girl". Virgin's fleet also has several tongue in cheek registrations, ''California Girl'' is G-V
LAX , after Los Angeles International. ''Boston Belle'' is G-V
JFK after Massachusetts' famous son, others include G-VIRG, G-VGIN and G-VXLG for a 747-400 (Ruby Tuesday).
The Virgin livery features a
Pinup Girl near the nose of each aircraft called the "Scarlet Lady". She was originally painted by
Alberto Vargas . Carrying a
Union Jack in a form reminiscent of British Airways' traditional "
Speedbird " logo, now she even has her own aircraft registration and name, an Airbus A340-600 registered G-VGAS and named "Varga Girl".
G-VAST, a Boeing 747-400 has featured in the BBC's Top Gear television show to be used to test the strength of cars in a dangerous crosswind.
The following aircraft have been in service for Virgin in the past:
- G-OUZO (Spirit of Melina) A320-200 - now with MyTravel (G-JOEM)
- G-TKYO (Maiden Japan) 747-200 - now with Kalitta Air (N703CK/converted to freighter)
- G-VATH (Hellenic Beauty) A321-200 - now with Turkish Airlines (TC-JME)
- G-VBEE (Honey Pie) 747-200 - now with Transaero (VP-BQA)
- G-VCAT (Wild Thing) 747-200 - now with European Aircharter (G-CCMA/currently stored)
- G-VGIN (Scarlet Lady) 747-200 - now with Kabo Air (5N-EEE)
- G-VIBE (Dancing Queen/later: Spirit of New York) 747-200 - now with Transaero (VP-BQH)
- G-VIRG (Maiden Voyager) 747-200 - now with Kabo Air (5N-EEE)
- G-VJFK (Boston Belle) 747-200 - now with Kabo Air (5N-PDP)
- G-VKID (Sundance Kid/Virgin Sun) A320-200 - now with Iberworld (EC-IMU)
- G-VKIS (Sunkissed Girl/Virgin Sun) A321-200 - now with Turkish Airlines (TC-JMF)
- G-VLAX (California Girl) 747-200 - now with Kabo Air (5N-PPP)
- G-VMED (Mediterranean Maiden) A320-200 - now with AtlasJet (TC-OGF)
- G-VMIA (Spirit of Sir Freddie) B747-100 - scrapped
- G-VOYG (Shady Lady) 747-200 - scrapped
- G-VPUF (High as a Kite) 747-200 - now with Transaero (VP-BQC/currently stored)
- G-VRGN (Maid of Honour) 747-200 - now with Tradewinds Airlines (N526UP/converted to freighter)
- G-VRUM (Calypso Queen) 747-200 - now with Southern Winds (LV-AZF)
- G-VSKY (China Girl) A340-300 - now with BWIA (9Y-JIL)
- G-VSSS (Island Lady) 747-200 - now with Transaero (VP-BQB)
- G-VTAN (Sunshine Girl/Virgin Sun) A320-200 - now with AtlasJet (TC-OGE)
- G-VZZZ (Morning Glory) 747-200 - now with Transaero (VP-BQE)
''Over the years, Virgin has adopted many clever slogans including:
-
Written on the back of the Airbus A340-600's because they are the longest passenger aircraft in the world
Written on the engines of planes, because all Virgin's planes are quad-jets as apposed to BA's long haul twin-jet Boeing 777 's and Boeing 767 's
-
Used to advertise Virgin's London-Hong Kong-Sydney service, the ''Q'' being Qantas which also operates the same route, the ''Q'' can also be the Queue
-
Used to promote the London-Dubai service, playing with rival airline Emirates ' slogan 'Keep Discovering'
On
August 15 ,
2005 , Virgin Atlantic, which flies the
Kangaroo Route between Australia and the UK via Hong Kong, denied it is in talks with part owner Singapore Airlines about extending its code sharing arrangements from Singapore to Sydney. Virgin Atlantic, 49% owned by Singapore Airlines, began flying between Sydney and the UK via Hong Kong in December 2004.
On
July 14 ,
2005 , Virgin Atlantic announced their plans to fly direct from
London Heathrow to
Dubai . The service will be operated by an
Airbus A340 and will be fitted with Virgin Atlantic's award-winning Upper Class Suite. In addition to this route, Virgin Atlantic recently announced a new route from
London Gatwick to
Montego Bay , Jamaica in July next year, which will bring the airline's total number of destinations to twenty-eight.
To celebrate the airline's 21st birthday the flying lady was temporarily moved to the back of Boeing 747 "Birthday Girl".
- Gregory, Martyn. Dirty Tricks: British Airways' Secret War Against Virgin Atlantic. New York: Virgin, 2000. ISBN 0753504588
