'Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd' (usually referred to as 'Virgin Atlantic') is a
British airline which is owned by
Richard Branson's
Virgin Group (51%) and
Singapore Airlines (49%). It operates long-haul routes between the
United Kingdom and
North America, the
Caribbean,
Africa, the
Middle East,
Asia, and
Australia from its main bases at
London Heathrow and
London Gatwick. Virgin has a smaller base at
Manchester Airport. The company holds a
United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, which permits it to carry passengers, cargo, and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.
[1]
History
Conception and Birth
In 1982,
Randolph Fields, an American-born lawyer, and
Alan Hellary, a previous chief pilot for
Laker Airways, set up
British Atlantic Airways as a direct successor to Laker Airways.
Fields got the idea of setting up an airline flying from
London to the
Falkland Islands in June 1982, when the
Falklands War had just finished and there was an apparent need for such a service.
[2] However, Fields needed more expertise and so contacted Alan Hellary, Laker Airways' former chief pilot, who had apparently thought about establishing a regular, commercial air service linking the UK and the Falkland Islands at the same time. Hellary was still in contact with many former colleagues who were out of work following the collapse of Laker Airways. These people continued working on the aforesaid idea.
Unfortunately, the short runway at
Port Stanley and the time it would take to improve it made the scheme unviable. Therefore, the idea of flying to the Falkland Islands was dropped. Instead, Hellary and Fields decided to try to secure a licence to fly from
London Gatwick to
JFK Airport in New York. A three-day hearing was held in May 1983. However, their application was rejected after both
British Caledonian and the
BAA objected.
Despite the failure of the two earlier schemes, Hellary and Fields persevered, applying for a licence to fly between London Gatwick and
Newark Liberty International Airport, just outside
New York. It was planned that British Atlantic Airways would use a 380-seat
DC10 to fly to Newark. However, faced with the prospect of direct competition from
People Express, a rapidly expanding post-
deregulation "
no frills" discount airline also based at Newark, they decided to secure additional funding before proceeding with their proposed new airline venture.
Fields met
Richard Branson at a party in
Central London during which he proposed a business partnership between Branson and himself to get his fledgling airline off the ground. After protracted and testy negotiations, Fields agreed to a reduced stake of 25% in the airline (renamed Virgin Atlantic) and became Virgin Atlantic's first chairman. (Following a series of disagreements over operational issues, Fields later agreed to be bought out for an initial sum of £1 million with further payment due upon Virgin's first dividend payment. As a result of a High Court action, this additional payment was received shortly before Fields' death from cancer in 1997. Fields also obtained lifetime Upper Class flying privileges for his immediate family and his mother, one of British Atlantic's early backers).
On
June 22 1984 Virgin Atlantic operated its inaugural scheduled air service between London Gatwick and Newark Liberty using a single, leased
Boeing 747-200 (G-VIRG) formerly operated by
Aerolineas Argentinas. The airline became profitable during its first year of operation, aided by sister company
Virgin Records' ability to finance the lease of a relatively inexpensive, second-hand Boeing 747. The firm also timed the start of operations to take advantage of a full summer's season, which included the June to September peak season - by far the most profitable travel period of the year.
Formative years
In 1986, the airline added another Boeing 747 and started a second scheduled route from Gatwick to
Miami. Additional aircraft were acquired and further routes were launched from Gatwick to New York-JFK (1988),
Tokyo (1989),
Los Angeles (1990),
Boston (1991), and
Orlando (1992). In 1987 a service was launched between
Luton and
Dublin using
Viscount turbo-prop aircraft, but this was withdrawn around 1990.
Subsequent developments
In December 1999
Virgin Group sold 49% of Virgin Atlantic to
Singapore Airlines for £600.25 million. Virgin group still owns the remaining 51%.
In August 2002, Virgin became the first airline to use the
Airbus A340-600.
Rolls-Royce Trent 500s power the
Airbus A340-600s (though this is the only engine option for the type) and the
Trent 900 will power
Airbus A380s on order.
Virgin Atlantic carried 3.8 million passengers in 2002. This increased to 4.9 million in 2006, placing them seventh amongst UK airlines by this measure, but a clear second in passenger-kilometres, because of the long-haul nature of Virgin's operations
[3].
During the
2012 Summer Olympics bids, Virgin Atlantic attached "London 2012" decals to the rear of many of its aircraft in support of London's bid.
Growing rivalry with British Airways
Virgin Atlantic has been a bitter rival of
British Airways since its inception.
[4]
Background to opening up Heathrow
In January 1991, the UK Government opened the door for Virgin to operate from
London Heathrow Airport when it decided to abolish the so-called "London Air Traffic Distribution Rules" in response to growing pressure from the industry.
Virgin Atlantic's precarious financial position during the early 1990s
According to some industry insider reports, Virgin Atlantic was facing increasing financial problems at that time. This was primarily the result of a sharp reduction in demand for air travel caused by the recession of the early 1990s as well as by the public's heightened fear to travel in the aftermath of the first
Gulf War. Britain's then
Conservative Government, which had presided over the spectacular collapse of the International Leisure Group (ILG) and its wholly owned subsidiary
Air Europe resulting in 4,000 job losses
and was well aware that
Dan-Air was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy during that time, was desperate to avoid the collapse of another prominent independent British airline, especially if its public profile was as high as Virgin Atlantic's. The Government was also conscious of the fact that many of these independent airlines' employees, whose jobs were threatened by the prevailing harsh economic climate at the time, lived in marginal Conservative constituencies. Therefore, the Government decided to let Virgin Atlantic into Heathrow by abolishing the "London Air Traffic Distribution Rules" despite facing mounting opposition from
British Airways, whose senior management was exerting pressure on the Government to maintain the status quo.
The "London Air Traffic Distribution Rules"
The "London Air Traffic Distribution Rules" came into effect on
April 1,
1978 and were applied retroactively from the beginning of
April 1977. These rules were designed to achieve a "fairer" distribution of traffic between London Heathrow and London Gatwick, the UK's two main international gateway airports. The policy was aimed at increasing Gatwick's utilisation to help the airport make a profit.
The "London Air Traffic Distribution Rules" stated that airlines that did not already operate an international scheduled air service from/to Heathrow prior to
April 1,
1977 would not be permitted to commence operations at that airport. Instead, they would have to use Gatwick for all their London-based operations. However, airlines that did not already operate at Heathrow prior to this law taking effect could still commence domestic scheduled services at the airport provided that the BAA, which ran both Heathrow and Gatwick on behalf of the Government, as well as the incumbent Secretary of State for Transport granted them permission to do so. In addition, the "London Air Traffic Distribution Rules" banned all new all-cargo as well as all charter flights from Heathrow as of
1 April, 1978.
BA's response
The decision to open up Heathrow to all newcomers - other than those governed by
Bermuda II - angered BA's then chairman,
Lord King, who stopped British Airways' donations to the
Conservative Party, which was in power in Britain at the time, in protest. Lord King was furthermore angered by the
Civil Aviation Authority's subsequent decision to transfer two pairs of unused slots British Airways held at
Tokyo's
Narita International Airport to his archrival Virgin Atlantic to enable Virgin to increase its frequency between Heathrow and Tokyo from four to six weekly round-trips, thereby making it easier for Virgin to compete against British Airways in the highly lucrative business travel market. Lord King called the CAA's decision to transfer these slots to one of his rivals, which the Government had endorsed, "a confiscation of his company's property".
"Dirty Tricks"
The Government's decision to abolish the "London Air Traffic Distribution Rules" and to let a small, upstart airline like Virgin Atlantic commence operations at Heathrow in direct competition with British Airways then became the main trigger for BA's so-called "dirty tricks" campaign against Virgin.
In 1992 BA's PR director
David Burnside published an article in "BA News", British Airways' internal staff magazine, which argued that Branson's protestations against British Airways were merely a publicity stunt. Branson sued British Airways for libel. BA settled out of court when its lawyers unearthed evidence of the extraordinary lengths to which the company went to try to "kill off" Virgin. BA was faced with a legal bill of up to £3m, damages to Branson 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.
Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-300
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 [1].
In 1997, following British Airways' announcement that it was to remove the
Union Flag 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 with the tag line "Britain's Flag Carrier". This was a "tongue-in-cheek" challenge to BA's traditional role as the UK's "flag carrier".
Relations with British Airways improved considerably with the arrival of
Rod Eddington as BA CEO though the rivalry between the two airlines continued. Eddington replaced
Robert Ayling, a key player in the "dirty tricks" affair who was dismissed by
Lord Marshall, the long-serving BA chairman and Mr. Ayling's chief mentor, on behalf of BA's main institutional shareholders after BA had suffered its first net loss since privatisation on Mr. Ayling's watch during its 1999/2000
financial year.
In June 2006, a tip-off from Virgin Atlantic led US and UK competition authorities to investigate alleged price-fixing attempts by British Airways. In August 2007, BA was fined £271 million over the allegations. Virgin Atlantic was not fined for colluding in the same price fixing as it was given immunity for reporting BA's actions.
Incidents and accidents
Airbus 340-600 at Tokyo-Narita
★ On
5 November, 1997, after numerous attempts to shake the jammed main landing gear of an
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 (G-VATL) 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. The interim accident report made 4 safety recommendations addressed to the primary certification bodies for large transport category aircraft (
EASA and the
FAA), advising on the need for a low fuel warning system for large aircraft.
[5]
★ On
15 July, 2006, G-VWKD (an
Airbus A340-600), during take off at
Hong Kong International Airport, suffered damage because of a
tailstrike and was forced to dump fuel in Hong Kong airspace and return to the airport for repairs.
Flying with Virgin
Virgin Atlantic G-VAST leaves from San Francisco.
The airline has three classes of service: Economy, Premium Economy and Upper Class (Premium Business Class).
'Economy' seats include a maximum seat pitch of 81 cm (depending on aircraft type). Inflight drinks are free. An updated Economy seat, with adjustable lumbar support has been fitted to some A340-600 aircraft, and is continually being rolled out across the fleet.
'Premium Economy' provides a separate check-in, priority boarding ahead of Economy passengers, a wider seat with more legroom than Economy and additional cabin services. In November 2006 Virgin launched an updated Premium Economy product with a wider seat and laptop power, which is continually being rolled out across the fleet, starting with the London-Heathrow-based A340 aircraft. As of late July 2007 all the A340s but one, G-VSUN, have the new product. G-VSUN will not have the new product until 2008.
[6] The 747s will start to be refitted from the third quarter of 2008; refitted Heathrow-based 747s will move all of the Premium Economy seats downstairs, leaving the upper deck entirely for Upper Class. The number of Premium Economy seats on these aircraft will increase from 32 to 36 seats
[7].
'Upper Class' is the Virgin Atlantic
business class. The Upper Class seat is claimed by the airline to be the biggest fully flat bed compared with any other airline's business class service (it is at least 202 cm long and 84 cm wide at the shoulders), but they are not the only airline to make this claim.
[8]. All but one aircraft in the Virgin Atlantic fleet (G-VSUN) have the Upper Class Suite.
The airline does not offer a traditional First Class cabin service, although some commentators erroneously state that Upper Class is equivalent to First—whereas the ''
de facto'' international standard of service class codes usually indicate that it is a "Premium Business Class" (denoted by the letter 'J').
[9] Similarly, Premium Economy is sometimes wrongly referred to as Business Class, whereas the letter 'W' usually refers to "Premium Economy" service.
In flight entertainment
Virgin Atlantic pioneered seat-back personal TVs on aircraft, and certain aircraft (some 747-400s and all A340-600s) utilise an Audio/Video on Demand (AVOD) system called V:Port. Older "Odyssey" and "Nova"
IFE systems can be found on various aircraft in the fleet; these have smaller screens and are constantly broadcasting audio and video on a loop rather than broadcasting on demand.
Destinations
Main articles: Virgin Atlantic destinations
Almost three-quarters of Virgin's flights operate from
London Heathrow, with the remainder operating from
London Gatwick. There are also some services from
Manchester Airport and one flight from
Glasgow International Airport.
New Routes in 2007
★
London Heathrow to
Chicago
★
London Heathrow to
Nairobi
★
Glasgow to
Orlando ''(Seasonal)''
★
London Heathrow to
Port Louis, Mauritius ''(Begins October 29, 2007)''
★
London Gatwick to
Kingston, Jamaica ''(Begins October 30, 2007)''
Fleet
Virgin Atlantic's fleet is currently composed of 6
Airbus A340-300, 19
Airbus A340-600, and 13
Boeing 747-400 aircraft and has an average age of 6.1 years as of August 2007.
Boeing 747-400s are used on all routes from Gatwick and Manchester.
From Heathrow, both
Boeing 747-400s and
Airbus A340s are used interchangeably. A new livery featuring a
pinup girl motif, designed by British artist Ken White, near the nose of each aircraft called the "Scarlet Lady", carrying a
Union Flag in a form reminiscent of
British Airways' "
speedbird" was introduced in October 2006 with the delivery of G-VRED and will eventually adorn the entire fleet.
Virgin Atlantic has ordered 6 Airbus
A380-800 aircraft with options on 6 more. The first delivery was expected to enter service in 2006 but was delayed until 2009 before Virgin finally deferred their order until 2013, arguing that it wanted the aircraft to prove itself before it put its own A380s into operation.
[10] 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 other services, eg
Orlando, is being explored (ref: Airliner World, March 2005). In the meantime, Virgin Atlantic will extend the leases on their Boeing 747-400s.
An A340 in maintenance.
On
April 24,
2007, Virgin Atlantic announced its order of 15 new
Boeing 787-9 aircraft with options on 8 more and purchase rights on 20 more. The first 787 will be delivered in 2011, replacing the airline's older Airbus A340-300s and enabling network growth.
[11]. Virgin listed
Rio de Janeiro,
Seattle,
Vancouver,
Bangkok and
Melbourne as possible new routes for the aircraft, while also stating that the 787's long range would make non-stop operations from London to
Perth in
Western Australia and
Honolulu,
Hawaii, economically viable for the first time in its history.
[12] On
8 July 2007, the day the 787 made its world debut, Virgin announced its intention to convert eight outstanding options into firm orders, which would increase the airline's order count to 23.
[13]
Virgin's aircraft are usually given feminine 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 had several tongue-in-cheek registrations: ''California Girl'' was G-VLAX, after Los Angeles International Airport and ''Boston Belle'' was G-VJFK after Massachusetts' famous son,
John F. Kennedy. The most notable exception is, “The Spirit of Sir Freddie,” named in honor of
Freddie Laker of the defunct
Laker Airways, who helped get Virgin Atlantic up and running following the demise of his own airline (this aircraft was the airline's sole Boeing 747-100 and is no longer part of the fleet).
Even British pop culture is fair game as a name source: G-VFAB ''Lady Penelope'' is so called after the eponymous character in the 1960s British “
Supermarionation” television show
Thunderbirds—
Lady Penelope drove a highly-modified
Rolls-Royce, known as "FAB-1" (the term "F.A.B." was also the standard radio sign-off among Thunderbirds' International Rescue organization).
G-VFAB ''Lady Penelope'' gained a new livery to celebrate the airline's 21st birthday. The flying lady motif normally found near the nose of the aircraft was enlarged and moved to the rear of the Boeing 747-400 to create "Birthday Girl". A special VS45 flight then took off with Richard Branson, media and twenty-one 21 year old competition winners.
[14]
G-VAST, a
747-400 has featured in the BBC's ''
Top Gear'' television show as a wind source to test the strength of cars in a crosswind.
Two Virgin Atlantic aircraft are featured briefly in the James Bond film,
Casino Royale. One
Airbus A340-600 (G-VWIN) and one
Boeing 747-400—along with
Richard Branson (at security checks) and Virgin Atlantic crew—are part of a scene at
Miami International Airport (although the sequence was filmed in
Ruzyně airport, Prague).
[15].
On
September 27,
2006, Richard Branson, on behalf of Virgin Atlantic, announced plans to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by cutting down on aircraft weight and fuel consumption.
[4]
Virgin's slogans
''Over the years, Virgin has used many slogans, including:''
★ ' "Mine's Bigger Than Yours"'
Written on the back of the
Airbus A340-600s because they are the longest passenger aircraft in the world
★ ' "4 Engines 4 Longhaul" '
Originally an Airbus slogan when newer versions of the A340 were built until Virgin inherited the slogan. These were written on the engines of planes, because all Virgin's planes at the time were quad-jets as opposed to BA's long haul twin-jet
Boeing 777s and
Boeing 767s. The slogan was removed in 2006 because it "had run its course and it was time to move on". Continued use of the slogan would have been hypocritical with Virgin's 2007 order for
Boeing 787 twin-jet aircraft.
★ '"Avoid The Q" '
Used to advertise Virgin's
London to
Hong Kong to
Sydney service, the ''Q'' being
Qantas which also operates the same route.
★ '"Keep Discovering - Until You Find The Best"'
Used to promote the
London to
Dubai service, playing with rival airline
Emirates' slogan 'Keep Discovering'
★ '"BA can't keep it [Concorde] up!"'
Written on the back of G-VFOX during June and July of 2003 after
British Airways announced it would retire
Concorde the following October.
★ '"No Way BA/AA"'
Used in the late 1990s on several 747-400s to express Branson's displeasure with the proposed
British Airways/
American Airlines partnership. BA/AA combined held 100% market share on several US-UK routes (e.g.
Dallas-Fort Worth to
London), and a market share of more than 50% in several more (e.g.
Chicago to
London,
JFK to
London).
Others Include: ''"More experience than the name suggests," "Virgin, seeks travel companion(s)," "Love at first flight," "You never forget your first time," "Extra inches where it counts," "Fly a younger fleet," "One call does it all," "Hello gorgeous" and, in a campaign featuring
Austin Powers, "There's only one Virgin on this T-shirt (or bus, etc.) baby," and "Twice a day to London" in which Austin Powers is seen riding on the fuselage of a Virgin Atlantic 747. During that time G-VTOP was temporarily named "Austin Powered".
Further reading
★ Gregory, Martyn. ''Dirty Tricks: British Airways' Secret War Against Virgin Atlantic''. New York: Virgin, 2000. ISBN 0-7535-0458-8
★ Bower, Tom. ''Branson''. UK: Fourth Estate, 2001 ISBN 1-84115-400-8
★
Losing my Virginity - The Autobiography, Branson, Richard, , , Virgin Books Ltd., 2006 [2nd reprint], ISBN 0-7535-1020-0
See also
★
Virgin America
★
Virgin Blue
★
Virgin Express
★
Virgin Galactic
★
Virgin Nigeria Airways
★
Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer
External links
★
Virgin Atlantic Airways
★
V-Flyer customer-created site
★
Virgin Atlantic Airways Fleet Age
★
Virgin Atlantic Fleet Detail
★
Photos of Virgin Atlantic Airways aircraft
References
1. Operating Licence
2. West Sussex County Times, Friday, January 20, 1984 Page 1
3. 2006 UK Airline Statistics
4. ''Losing my Virginity - The Autobiography.'', Branson, R., Virgin Books Ltd., London, 2006 (2nd reprint), p. 362
5. Airbus A340-642, G-VATL
6. [2]
7. Virgin Atlantic 744 seating configuration 4. Retrieved on August 1, 2007.
8. Singapore Airlines "The largest full-flat bed in Business Class"
9. Travel Manager Resource Center
10. Virgin Atlantic to delay A380 deliveries until 2013 Steve Goldstein
11. Virgin Reveals Dreamliner order
12. Virgin Atlantic Press Release dated 24 April 2007
13. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2121039,00.html
14. [3]
15. "James Bond Seeks Out Virgin Atlantic for "Casino Royale" Assignment," Virgin Atlantic press release, 4 July 2006.
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
