Smooth flying, indeed…
How do you turn a crisis into a triumph? Ask Virgin Atlantic. The airline was an early investor in the generally dreamy Boeing 787 Dreamliner, but Rolls Royce engine woes forced the airline to take many planes out of service with little notice. To cope, they acquired four birds they’re very familiar with from the Airbus A330 family. The planes aren’t new per se, but if you end up flying on one, you’d be excused for never knowing. The airline has turned them into arguably their very best cabins. At least until the Airbus A350-1000, with suites arrives. Here’s what to expect on board…
A New Experience In Every Cabin
Virgin has installed new Upper Class seats, the latest and greatest premium economy seats and a modern economy cabin that’s more than palatable for anyone. Here’s a recap. Up front, the lovely Upper Class cabin now offers privacy seats nestled next to the window, and “love suites” in the middle, which are designed for star crossed lovers. The “love” suites are just about as close to a double bed as you’ll find in business class. Each new Upper Class seat offers far more tray and table space, and much larger entertainment screens as well, not to mention direct aisle access.
In premium, you’ll find the industry benchmark premium economy seat, which is the same offered by award winning Singapore Air, but with distinct Virgin Atlantic touches. In economy, you’ll find a layout with 2 window seats on each flank, with 4 in the middle. All the new economy seats offer extra large entertainment screens and power ports. Here are exclusive first pictures… 
So, Where To For The Virgin A330-200?
You’ll find the newly minted Virgin Atlantic Airbus A330-200 flying between London Gatwick and Caribbean airports such as Barbados, where the first plane is currently operating as of this week. The remaining three Virgin A330-200 birds will launch in January 2019, serving USA routes from Manchester and London Gatwick routes to the Caribbean, including Antigua. We’ve exclusively learned that Manchester – Los Angeles will be first USA destination to receive the new plane in 2019. A Virgin A332 is in the air to Antigua as we speak and this means select flights may receive the “new” planes early. Lucky ****s! You can use mobile app FlightRadar24 to track where the planes are flying, simply entering the tail numbers “G-VMNK”, “G-VLNM”, “G-VMIK” and “G-VWND”. We leave you with photos of the seats being assembled. Impressive…
Richard Branson need to built a new virgin airline going to African for example Nigeria.
He built a new virgin airline to other countries.
The Old Airbus A340-600 was built in 2001. 2002 the Airbus starts commercial service August 2002. Now 18years old. Shows Sir Richard Branson only care about other countries but doesn’t bother to built a new a Airbus to African. We need a new virgin Airbus to African.
We(in Barbados) have not yet seen G-VMNK(the refitted A332). This week, that aircraft was operating at Heathrow, prior to which it was operating the LGW-ANU-LGW and LGW-UVF-GND-UVF-LGW. We were having G-VINE(Champagne Belle) and a mixture of B744s out of LGW. Get the facts correct😉.
It’s flying Sunday night from BGI, and I’ll be on it.
What a contrast with the overly densified, under maintained, normally filthy BA cabins… When combined with adequate catering, lower surcharges and more reasonable service standards / response times, there’s really no reason to even consider flying BestAvoided when Virgin (pr almost any other national airline) offer a competing service.
Richard, please convince Boeing to build more economical 747’s then you can put them back on route! I must admit though your new A350 looks impressive!! Just don’t buy any 737 max!