Virgin Atlantic Airways

Categories: Airlines of the United Kingdom | Virgin Group

Virgin Atlantic Airways, usually referred to as Virgin Atlantic, is the airline 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).

History

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.

"Dirty tricks"

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 A380s on order.

Incidents and Accidents

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).

On 5 November 1997, The main landing gear of Airbus A340-300 G-VSKY failed to extend properly. After numerous attempts to shake the landing gear free failed, the aircraft made an emergency landing at London Heathrow Airport causing significant damage to the aircraft as the landing gear collapsed. The aircraft was evacuated safely causing only minor injuries. The emergency landing caused damage to the runway.

On 19 June 1984, during the final CAA test flight before full licensing, an engine caught fire. The aircraft landed safely. A photographer took a picture of the new aircraft's engine ablaze. Fortunately for the fledgling airline, Branson was handed the picture by the photographer, rather than having it published.

Destinations

Virgin Atlantic serve the following international scheduled destinations, including codeshared ones. (at January 2005):

• Antigua,
• Barbados,
• Boston,
• Cape Town,
• Delhi,
• Dubai (Service to start on: 27 March 2006 - Source: Gulf News)
• Grenada,

• Havana,
• Hong Kong,
• JFK (New York),
• Johannesburg,
• Lagos,
• Las Vegas,
• Los Angeles,
• Melbourne, (stopping over in Sydney, partly codeshared with Virgin Blue)
• Miami,
• Mumbai,
• Nassau,
• Newark (New York), Codeshared with Continental Airlines
• Orlando,
• Port Harcourt,
• San Francisco,
• Singapore, Codeshared with Singapore Airlines
• Shanghai,
• St Lucia,
• Sydney,
• Tobago,
• Tokyo,
• Washington, D.C..

Fleet

Virgin Atlantic's Fleet consists of the following at October 2005:

• 8 Airbus A340-300
• 10 Airbus A340-600 (further 15 on order)
• 13 Boeing 747-400

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 A340-600 and 747-400 aircraft. Approximately half of the A340-300 aircraft in the Virgin Atlantic fleet will have Suites fitted during 2005, whilst the remaining aircraft will either be sold or retired.

The airline has three classes of service: Economy, Premium Economy and Upper Class. Premium Economy provides a separate check-in, larger seat and a welcome glass of champagne, but otherwise receives the same service as Economy Class. Virgin Atlantic terms its business-class fare offering "Upper Class". Upper Class passengers can avail themselves of massage services in-flight and can also request complimentary limousine pick-up and drop-off at the airport; however, the limousine is not available to those who purchase the cheaper "Z" coded Upper Class fare. 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 a 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 any of which can be started at will, and have normal user controls such as pause, rewind, and fast-forward. Also featured are a number of video games, several of which can be played competitively against other passengers.

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-VLAX, after Los Angeles International. Boston Belle is G-VJFK after Massachusetts' famous son, others include G-VIRG, G-VGIN and G-VXLG for a 747-400 (Ruby Tuesday).

The current 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".

Events in 2005

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.

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 that it is due to launch a new route to Montego Bay, Jamaica in July next year, which will bring the airline's total number of destinations to twenty-eight.

The flying lady was temporarily edited on one Boeing 747 moving onto the back of the aircraft. This was to celebrate the airline's 21st birthday. The 747 was temporarily renamed Birthday Girl.

Further reading

• Gregory, Martyn. Dirty Tricks: British Airways' Secret War Against Virgin Atlantic. New York: Virgin, 2000. ISBN 0753504588

See also

• Virgin America
• Virgin Blue
• Virgin Express
• Virgin Galactic
• Virgin Nigeria Airways
• Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer

External links

• Virgin Atlantic Airways
• Virgin Atlantic Fleet Detail
• Virgin Atlantic Passenger Opinions
• Virgin Atlantic Flyer (V-Flyer) (customer-created site)
• Seat Guru Listing (Detailed seat map for Boeing_747s flying into Heathrow)
• Photos of Virgin Atlantic Airways aircraft

de:Virgin Atlantic Airways fr:Virgin Atlantic gu:વર્જિન એટલાંટિક hi:वर्जिन एटलान्टिक ja:ヴァージン・アトランティック航空 no:Virgin Atlantic Airways nn:Virgin Atlantic Airways zh:維珍航空