Virgin Atlantic - the world's sexiest airline?

[Monkey]

Virgin Atlantic fleet


Virgin Atlantic have ordered 6 x A380s with options on a further 6. They were due to enter service in 2006 but, following the production delays, Airbus could not deliver them until 2009. Virgin then further postponed delivery until 2013 stating that they wanted the A380 to "prove itself in service":




Virgin Atlantic have recently ordered the gorgeous new Boeing 787. They want 15 new Boeing 787-9 aircraft with options on 8 more and purchase rights on 20 more. Note the slighly more subtle new Virgin livery (compare to the old one with the purple stripes and Virgin Group's old "paintbrush effect" logo in the other photos on this page):




Until delivery of the A380 and B787, Virgin Atlantic's fleet consists of Boeing 747-400s and Airbus A340-300s and 600s. Virgin Atlantic was the launch customer for the Airbus A340-600 which is the largest Airbus until the arrival of the A380. The A340-600 is also the longest airliner in service. In fact it's even longer than the A380 will be.


I love the silver Virgin Atlantic paint scheme and the flying lady inspired by WWII American fighters and bombers:




Lady Penelope from above:




Patriotic Union Jack wingtip:




Virgin Economy Class. The entertainment on Virgin is excellent - no surpirse given Richard Branson's business background:




Upstairs in a Virgin Jumbo:




Upper Class Bar. Virgin Upper Class offers massage and beauty services:




Cold day in New York:




Arriving in Los Angeles - note the Southwest tail fins:




Taking off from Manchester:




Airbus A340-600 at Shanghai Pudong. Virgin Atlantic now offer a daily Shanghai service from London Heathrow:




Sky high Virgin:

[Monkey]

Virgin Atlantic routes


United States
- New York
- Chicago
- Boston
- Washington DC
- Los Angeles
- San Francisco
- Las Vegas
- Orlando
- Miami

Caribbean
- Havana
- Kingston
- Montego Bay
- Antigua
- Barbados
- St Lucia
- Grenada*
- Tobago

Middle East
- Dubai

Africa
- Johannesburg
- Cape Town
- Nairobi
- Lagos
- Mauritius

South Asia
- Delhi
- Bombay

E/SE Asia
- Tokyo
- Hong Kong
- Shanghai
- Singapore**
- Beijing***

Australia
- Sydney


* via Tobago
** operated by Singapore Airlines
*** operated by Air China



Branson's wish list of new destinations includes Melbourne, Toronto, Bangkok, and Rio de Janeiro.

[Monkey]

One thing I have always loved about Virgin Atlantic are the feminine and often witty names of the aircraft. For example Maiden Toulouse is an Airbus "made in Toulouse". Tubular Belle is named after the Mike Oldfield's album that made Richard Branson's first Virgin fortune as a recording studio. Tinker Belle is named after the fairy in Peter Pan etc etc....


Virgin Atlantic aircraft names

- Maiden Tokyo
- Ladybird
- Miss Kitty
- Tinker Belle
- Soul Sister
- Queen Of The Skies
- African Queen
- Lady Penelope
- Diana
- Dancing Queen
- Bubbles
- Silver Lady
- Jersey Girl
- Varga Girl
- Indian Princess
- Jetstreamer
- Tubular Belle
- Hot Lips
- Mystic Maiden
- Sleeping Beauty
- Cover Girl
- Scarlet Lady
- Mustang Sally
- Barbarella
- English Rose
- Pretty Woman
- Plane Sailing
- Madame Butterfly
- Sweet Dreamer
- Virginia Plain
- Surfer Girl
- Lady Luck
- Miss Behavin
- Cosmic Girl
- Ruby Tuesday
- Emmeline Heaney

[Monkey]

Virgin Atlantic continues expansion drive with extra services to key destinations worldwide
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb...r011205(a).jsp

Virgin Atlantic Airways today announced that it plans to continue its expansion drive by increasing services to many of its key business and leisure routes in the next month. Services to Mumbai will increase from three services per week to daily from today, its six-weekly Shanghai flights will also become daily from 7 December followed by daily services to Cape Town over the peak winter season from 29 January to 25 March 2006. Flights to Las Vegas have increased by 50% already this year with a fifth weekly service being added in July and a sixth weekly service launched in September.

Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Atlantic, commented:

"I am delighted that Virgin Atlantic is continuing to increase its frequency on significant business and leisure routes including Mumbai, Shanghai, Cape Town and Las Vegas.

"Shanghai was a landmark route for us as it was the first route Virgin Atlantic had been granted the rights to fly on before British Airways. From day one Las Vegas has been extremely popular with our passengers and we hope to be able to offer a daily service from next year.

"Cape Town has always been one of our most popular destinations and there has been a high demand from both leisure and business travellers to increase our services so we are very happy that we can increase from two to three services per week during the peak winter season and then to daily during February and March.

"Mumbai is one of our newest routes, launched in March this year, thanks to the new liberal bilateral air services agreement we are able now to launch daily services from Heathrow.

"The demand for popular long haul routes continues to rise and Virgin Atlantic is committed to sustain and build upon its growth with further route expansion next year to Dubai, Virgin Atlantic’s first Middle Eastern destination, and Jamaica, the eighth Caribbean island on our route map."

Virgin Atlantic launched flights between London Heathrow and Mumbai on 27 March this year. Following the recent bilateral agreement between the UK and Indian governments Virgin Atlantic is now able to increase these services from three per week to a daily service from 1 December on an Airbus 340-300 aircraft. All flights will depart Heathrow at 21:30 arriving into Mumbai at 11:55 the following day. Flights will depart Mumbai at 14:55 and arrive at Heathrow at 19:35.

Services between Heathrow and Shanghai began in May 1999 and will increase from six services per week to a daily service from 7 December this year on an Airbus 340-600 aircraft. All flights will depart Heathrow at 16:00 arriving into Shanghai at 11:15 the following day. Flights will depart Shanghai at 13:30 and arrive at Heathrow at 17:50.

The twice-weekly services between Heathrow and Cape Town will increase to seven services per week during the winter season. The current scheduled twice-weekly service will increase to three services per week between 7 December 2005 and 25 January 2006. From 29 January 2006 until the end of the winter season on 25 March 2006, services will increase to seven per week. The new Wednesday service will start from 7 December, and will depart from Heathrow at 18:30 and arrive in Cape Town at 08:30 the following day. The return flight will depart on Thursdays at 12.25 from Cape Town and arrive at Heathrow the same day at 22.40.

From 29 January 2006, the daily services will operate at a retimed schedule for the period up to 25 March 2006. Flights will depart every day from Heathrow at 18.00 arriving into Cape Town at 08.00 the next day. Return flights will depart Cape Town at 23.10 and arrive into Heathrow at 09.25 the following day. Flights in December and January will be operated with a Boeing 747-400 aircraft and from 29 January flights will be operated with an Airbus 340-300 aircraft.

Virgin Atlantic currently flies to 26 destinations worldwide. Services to Dubai will launch in March 2006 and services to Jamaica will launch in July 2006.

[Monkey]

This article is a little dated but on the same theme:


Branson predicts global growth for Virgin Atlantic

Sir Richard Branson yesterday outlined Virgin Atlantic’s strategy for growth through a mixture of new routes and extra capacity on Virgin Atlantic’s network, the establishment of new airlines across the world’s developing aviation markets and launching services from Europe’s capital cities to America, under a new EU/US Open Skies deal.

Speaking on the day of the airline’s first flight to Sydney, Australia, Sir Richard said:

"Adding Sydney to our route network is another milestone in Virgin Atlantic’s success story. The destination is the airline’s 23rd and further develops our presence in the Asia – Pacific region. It also demonstrates our strategy of growing the airline by 10-15% per year. We’ll achieve growth in both the leisure and business markets.

"From our very first flight between London and New York and the early development of our routes to Miami and Orlando the platform of our success has been our strong leisure traffic. Other airlines have in the past disparaged economy travellers and sought to concentrate on the business travel market. This is a mistake that Virgin Atlantic has never made and will never make.

"Over the years Virgin Holidays has become the biggest tour operator to Florida and in a few short years operating to the Caribbean is already closing in on the number one spot in that region as well. We are going to build on this success by significantly expanding our leisure routes out of Gatwick and Manchester; adding a number of new destinations that will see Virgin Holidays more than double in size.

"Having said that I’ll never forget Freddie Laker’s advice not to build an airline solely on economy passengers. Accordingly, we will be adding both capacity and new destinations out of Heathrow on key business routes. Our wish list of new routes includes Melbourne, Dubai, Bangkok, Chicago, Toronto, Jamaica, Nairobi, and Rio.

"Our recent order for up to 26 new Airbus A340-600s means that in total we have firm orders for 24 aircraft and options for a further 19 over the next few years. Together with our existing fleet of 29 aircraft these aircraft will give us the potential to double the size of the airline over the next five years. As well as expanding to new markets our award winning Upper Class Suite is enabling us to grow our market share on our existing route network."

Richard went on to outline the second element of the growth strategy:

"Allied to growing Virgin Atlantic’s core services we are also planning to use our successful experience with Virgin Blue and Virgin Express to set up a number of new airlines around the world. Virgin America is making great progress towards a launch in 2005 and Virgin Nigeria is aiming to start flying from Spring next year. The latter will be 49% owned by Virgin Atlantic and serves as a template for future expansion.

"Growth in the established aviation markets is likely to be steady in the coming years but growth in the developing markets like Africa, India and China is likely to be much more pronounced – 10%, 20% perhaps 30% per year. Virgin’s established world class aviation reputation and our development of the Virgin brand puts us in a unique position to set up new aviation ventures around the world. The Virgin brand is in the top 10 most respected brands in almost every trading area in the world.

"The Virgin brand has a proven track record of success in aviation and we’ve proved we can work in both long and short haul across a number of countries. As Virgin Nigeria demonstrates, where possible we’d like to use the strength and experience of Virgin Atlantic to give birth to these new airlines."

Finally, Richard outlined the third aspect of the strategy:

"We believe that the first ever "Open Skies" agreement between the US and EU will be agreed in the near future. We expect a true liberalisation of the current constraints and regulations which have held back airline growth and, in particular, we expect to be given the opportunity to operate Virgin Atlantic services from other European cities to the big US destinations like New York and Los Angeles.

"The Virgin Atlantic brand is clearly well established in the major US cities and we’re pretty well known across Europe. We’d be confident that the quality of our service would enable us to compete with the likes of Lufthansa out of Frankfurt, Air France/KLM out of Paris and Amsterdam, Alitalia from Rome and even other European business centres. Our Upper Class Suite beats every competitor across Europe hands down and we’d reflect the culture of each country with our crews, onboard service and inflight entertainment."

[Monkey]

Branson throws down gauntlet on visa costs
Virgin to cover visa costs for mainland
7 December 2005
South China Morning Post

Virgin Atlantic Airways will pay visa costs for its mainland passengers next year to press the British government into changing its travel policies for Chinese tourists and business executives, Sir Richard Branson said yesterday.

Sir Richard, whose airline will launch flights from London to Beijing within a year to complement its daily Shanghai service, said Britain's "ridiculous" visa policy was stifling travel between China and Britain.

"It is madness that we don't behave as the rest of the EU does on [China travel visas]. The price of the visa from China to England is more than 25 per cent of the fare at present," he told the South China Morning Post yesterday.

"So for the first few months of next year, we'll pay for the Chinese visas ourselves and try to embarrass the British government into doing something about that."

Mainland citizens pay 1,020 yuan for a visa to visit Britain, while Virgin's lowest fare on the London-Shanghai route is 3,777 yuan.

Florian Preuss, the airline's general manager for Hong Kong, said British airlines were at a disadvantage in the China market compared with carriers from France and Germany, where mainland visa policies are more relaxed.

"Virgin would be able to expand infinitely faster in China if it was easier for the Chinese to travel into and through the UK," Mr Preuss said. "As long as the UK keeps those [restrictions] on, it will limit the amount of traffic that goes through the UK. If you look at Lufthansa and Air France, a lot of what they carry is [transit] traffic."

Virgin yesterday said it would double its London-Hong Kong flights to twice daily next year, a move expected to further cut ticket prices on the competitive route.

Sir Richard said Virgin's entry a year ago on to the Hong Kong-Sydney leg of the "kangaroo route" had led to a 40 per cent drop in ticket prices on the sector and had lifted passenger traffic 20 per cent. "We just can't get enough seats on the Hong Kong route, particularly now that we've started the Sydney leg," he said. "It was quite a brave decision by the Hong Kong authorities to let us on to that route but it's paid off for both of us. From Virgin's perspective, we are finally profitable on the Sydney route and we have only been going 12 months."

He said Virgin could be flying to "four or five cities" in China within five years.

Beijing, he said, would almost certainly be served with a new 370-seat A340-600. "China is just like India, it is exploding," he said.

[Monkey]

Virgin Atlantic introduces a sixth daily New York service
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb...go.x=20&go.y=6

Virgin Atlantic Airways today announced that it will be introducing an additional daily JFK service, increasing its flights between Heathrow and New York from five to six a day. The new daily service will be the airline’s second daylight flight from New York and will operate from 1 July 2006.

Steve Ridgway, Chief Executive of Virgin Atlantic, said:

"I am delighted that Virgin Atlantic is increasing its services to New York from five to six services a day. New York was Virgin Atlantic’s first route and remains our biggest route and as this expansion shows, the demand for travel to the destination continues to go from strength to strength. This new service means that we can carry up to 200,000 extra passengers to ?the Big Apple’ each year.

"Upper Class passengers flying to New York can enjoy our award winning Upper Class Suite plus four limo transfers per return journey, Drive Thru Check In at Heathrow, the brand new Clubhouse at Heathrow including Cowshed Spa and Bumble and bumble hair salon, inflight beauty therapy and on board bar.?

"With the addition of this New York service, we have also made some great schedule improvements making our well timed flights without a doubt the best way to travel to New York."

In conjunction with the new JFK service, from the 1 July 2006 the VS009 will change from its current 1805 departure to a new Heathrow departure time of 1600. These changes will allow Virgin Atlantic to bring the VS010 departure from JFK forward to 2125.

Virgin Atlantic launched flights between London and New York - Newark in June 1984 and services to JFK in August 1989. Since then Virgin has flown over 12 million passengers between London and New York.

The new daylight JFK service will depart Heathrow at 18:00 and arrive into JFK at 21:00. The return flight will leave JFK at 07:30 and arrive back into Heathrow at 19:10 the same day. This service will operate using an Airbus 340-600 aircraft and will be configured with 45 Upper Class seats, 28 Premium Economy seats and 223 in Economy.

Virgin Atlantic currently flies to 25 destinations worldwide. Services to Dubai will launch on 27 March 2006 and services to Jamaica will launch on 03 July 2006.

[Monkey]

Virgin passengers can now book on Air China's daily London-Beijing service and Air China passengers can now book on Virgin's daily London-Shanghai service. What a perfect match!


Virgin Atlantic and Air China to codeshare on London-Shanghai and London-Beijing routes
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb...s/pr310306.jsp

Virgin Atlantic Airways is delighted to announce that it has agreed a new reciprocal codeshare deal with Air China (CA) to enable its passengers to enjoy codeshare connections between the services of the two carriers.

Effective on flights from 1 July 2006, the agreement with Air China means that Virgin Atlantic passengers will be able to purchase flights between London Heathrow and Beijing, complimenting Virgin Atlantic’s daily flights into Shanghai. Air China will codeshare on Virgin Atlantic’s daily services between London Heathrow and Shanghai. Tickets will be on sale from 15 April 2006.

In addition to the codeshare agreement a frequent flyer miles deal will be in place, which means that Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club members will earn miles when they travel with Air China. Air China’s Companion frequent flyers will also earn miles when they fly on Virgin Atlantic’s services.

Willy Boulter, Virgin Atlantic’s Commercial Director, said:

"We are delighted to announce this new codeshare agreement with Air China. It will offer passengers greater flexibility for their travel to and from China, together with fantastic value and excellent standards of service throughout their journey.

"Virgin Atlantic was the first UK airline to offer direct flights between London and Shanghai in July 1999 and has flown around 400,000 passengers on the route since then. We look forward to welcoming more passengers onboard this year and further expansion in China in the future."

Chris Humphrey, Country Manager of China at Virgin Atlantic added:

"This codeshare deal is the ideal compliment to our daily services between Shanghai and London ? currently the only daily service between mainland China and the UK. Also, by linking the frequent flyer programmes of both airlines, we will be able to provide our passengers with even more benefits and choice."

Virgin Atlantic currently flies daily between London Heathrow and Shanghai Pudong Airport. The VS250 departs Heathrow at 14.30 arriving into Shanghai at 08.45 the following day. The return flight VS251 departs Shanghai at 10.55 arriving into Heathrow at 16.15 the same day.

Since it was founded 21 years ago, Virgin Atlantic Airways has become Britain’s second largest carrier, serving the world’s major cities. Now based at London Gatwick, London Heathrow and Manchester airports, Virgin operates long haul services to twenty-six destinations worldwide as far reaching as Las Vegas, Dubai and Sydney.

Cai Jianjiang, Executive Vice President of Air Chinacommented:

"We are so pleased to cooperate with Virgin Atlantic Airways. I believe that through our joint efforts, we will provide more choices and high quality services to the travelling public.

"Air China always takes passenger-oriented service policy and endeavours to provide safe, fast, convenient and satisfactory air passenger transport services to our customers.The cooperation with Virgin Atlantic is one of the important steps of Air China to fulfill its strong commitment in this regard."

From 16 April 2006, Air China’s service between Beijing and London Heathrow will be increased from five to seven each week. Flight CA937 departs Beijing Capital International Airport at 1405 arriving into London Heathrow at 0055 the following day (except the Monday flight which departs at 1310 and arrives at 2355). The return flight CA938 departs London Heathrow at 0200 and arrives into Beijing at 1155.

Air China is the biggest airline and the national carrier of the People's Republic of China. Currently Air China operates services to 242 destinations (including 53 domestic routes, 181 overseas routes and 8 regional routes) and flies to 111 cities in 23 countries. The fleet includes 42 Boeing 747s, 767s, 777s and Airbus 340.

[Monkey]

Virgin increases Las Vegas service to daily
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb...s/pr050506.jsp

Virgin Atlantic Airways today announced that it is increasing its services between Gatwick and Las Vegas from six services a week to daily from 06 May.

Steve Ridgway, Chief Executive of Virgin Atlantic said:

"I am delighted to announce that Las Vegas has become a daily service. Las Vegas is a fantastic city full of excitement and entertainment and it has proved to be a very popular route with both leisure and business travellers. Since we introduced the first ever direct service to Las Vegas in June 2000, Virgin Atlantic have carried over 700,000 passengers."

Flights to Las Vegas depart Gatwick Airport at 10:45, arriving in to McCarran International Airport at 13:30. Flights depart Las Vegas at 16:05, arriving back into Gatwick the following morning at 09:55.

Services to Las Vegas are operated on a Boeing 747-400 aircraft with a configuration of 14 Upper Class Suites, 58 Premium Economy and 379 Economy seats.

Virgin Atlantic currently flies to 26 destinations worldwide and will commence services to Montego Bay in Jamaica on 03 July this year.

[Monkey]

Virgin aims to increase flights to India
http://news.cheapflights.co.uk/fligh..._aims_to_.html

Travellers to India will be pleased to hear that Virgin Atlantic is looking to increase capacity to the country and has improved its luxury service.

The UK airline has reported a huge increase in demand for flights to India and is looking to double its capacity on services from London to New Delhi and Mumbai.

The company is also thinking of launching direct connections to Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore in the south of India.

As well as offering more seats for passengers travelling to India, the airline yesterday launched its Upper Class Suite on all India routes, which features reclining leather seats that double up as beds. Virgin Atlantic (India) chief executive Joe Thompson believes the luxury service will attract more customers.

"With this, we are expecting a 15 to 20 per cent passenger increase in the upper first class," he said.

Upper Class travel on Virgin Atlantic also entitles passengers to on-board massages and free champagne.

[Iain1974]

Also has the worst customer service I've ever experienced on any european airline.

I'll never fly Virgin again.

[Monkey]

^ I couldn't agree less. I have enjoyed better service on Virgin than any airline from any continent.

[London_guy]

Originally Posted by Monkey

^ I couldn't agree less. I have enjoyed better service on Virgin than any airline from any continent.

Must agree, Virgin airlines provided an excellent service when I flew with them last summer. Have flown with AA, BA United, Cathy Pacific and VIRGIN by far were best.

[samsonyuen]

Me too. Bring back Toronto service!

[Monkey]

^


Rumour that Virgin Atlantic will fly to Rio from October
http://www.terra.com.br/istoedinheir...ionario_ar.htm

Quoting the Brazilian Civil Aviation Authority (Anac), Brazilian magazine Istoé reported Virgin Atlantic will start seven weekly flights between London and Rio de Janeiro next October. In London, Virgin executives neither confirmed nor denied the information. "Virgin Atlantic is still studying whether to fly to Rio de Janeiro in particular, and to anywhere in South America in general" said Paul Charles, the airline's communications director.

[Monkey]

Virgin to begin Mauritius service
http://news.cheapflights.co.uk/fligh..._to_begin.html

Virgin Atlantic is to launch a twice-weekly route between London Gatwick and Mauritius next year.

Due to start in November 2007, flights will take off on Mondays and Fridays. Boeing 747-400 aircraft will serve the route, which will all be equipped with 379 economy seats, 58 premium economy seats and 14 upper class seats.

The price of tickets and the exact start date have not yet been released by the airline.

Virgin Atlantic's chairman, Sir Richard Branson, said: "This new route shows that we are continuing to build a long-haul network with the ideal mix of business and leisure routes for today's traveller."

The destination is the latest addition to the range offered by Virgin Holidays, which also offers travellers a selection of top-class hotels, water sports and other extras.

Mauritius is Virgin Atlantic's first destination in the Indian Ocean. The airline also flies to North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia from Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester.

[Monkey]

Profits double at Virgin Atlantic
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5116100.stm



Virgin will be launching a new London to Mauritius service


Airline firm Virgin Atlantic saw pre-tax profits more than double, hitting £41.6m ($75.8m) boosted by sales of business class tickets.

And the firm recorded like-for-like revenues of £1.9bn for the year to 28 February, up 17% on the year before.

Virgin also announced a new London to Mauritius service for 2007.

The results come after suggestions that Virgin tipped off UK and US authorities about alleged attempts at price-fixing at rival British Airways.


'Major issue'

Virgin is said to have heard from a BA executive about plans to increase BA's fuel charges. Under competition law, tipping off a rival about a price change is illegal.

Virgin Atlantic chief executive Steve Ridgway told BBC Radio Five Live the firm was "fully co-operating and assisting" with the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in its investigation.

The OFT is also working with the US Department of Justice on the inquiry.

The airline's increase in profits came despite a 30% rise in fuel costs. The company said it was overcoming this "by investing heavily in new products", including new aircraft and offering new services such as flights to India and the Caribbean.

And about half of the firm's increase in fuel costs had been offset by the fuel surcharges, said Mr Ridgway.

But he added: "We still have a major issue with fuel costs, which represent a huge proportion of our costs."

Meanwhile, the new London to Mauritius service will run twice a week from Gatwick from November next year, answering an "overwhelming demand from leisure passengers", said the firm's founder, Sir Richard Branson.

[Monkey]

Virgin Atlantic and ANA team up to offer round the world fare
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb.../pr220906a.jsp

Virgin Atlantic is pleased to announce that it has teamed up with ANA (All Nippon Airways) which will allow Virgin Atlantic passengers to fly onwards in Japan on ANA’s domestic services. The deal will also allow ANA travellers to fly on Virgin Atlantic services from ANA destinations on the Virgin route network.

In addition to this arrangement, Virgin Atlantic Airways and ANA will be releasing a special joint round the world (RTW) fare utilising the networks of both carriers. Passengers travelling from London can enjoy RTW fares from £1339.

Circle fares will also be available which are designed to offer greater travel options and choices to passengers at common gateways in the UK, Japan USA, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Willy Boulter, Virgin Atlantic’s Commercial Director, commented:

"I am delighted to announce this new arrangement with All Nippon Airways. The agreement will offer a greater choice to customers travelling from Japan, the UK and the USA and will allow them to make a complete tour of the world at very favourable rates, whilst enjoying the superior levels of service for which ANA and Virgin Atlantic are renowned."

Schinichiro Ito, All Nippon Airways Executive Vice President, Marketing & Sales, commented:

"We are very pleased to be part of this partnership with Virgin Atlantic, giving more options, flexibility and benefits to customers whose itineraries take them around the world, either for business or pleasure."

Virgin Atlantic now flies to 27 destinations and operates one of the youngest fleet of aircraft in the world. Virgin Atlantic offer the Upper Class Suite on all its flights where passengers are able to enjoy a reclining leather seat for take off, a place to sit and eat a meal opposite your partner, the longest fully flat bed in the world with a proper mattress for sleeping on, a private onboard bar to drink at and four limousines per return trip.

ANA is now one of the world’s ten largest airlines. Along with its sister companies, it carries over 50 million guests each year to 49 destinations in its home market, Japan, and to 22 overseas cities in Asia, Europe and the United States.

[Smarty]

The one problem with Virgin Atlantic is that like BA they only have a 31 inch seat pitch (compared to 34 for Malaysian / Air New Zealand etc). This makes all the difference when like me you're 6ft 3

[jorgen]

I'm flying with Virgin Atlantic to Barbados in November. It will be my first flight on a Jumbo Jet