Virgin Atlantic has unveiled details of its long-awaited Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, which includes an entirely new Upper Class cabin, featuring a brand new suite and social space. The airline’s first A350, named Red Velvet, will take to the skies from late summer 2019.
As the first airline to introduce an onboard bar, Virgin Atlantic has taken its customer proposition to the next level; passengers will now be able to enjoy a social space known as The Loft, the largest social space in the airline’s fleet and one designed for socialising in flight.
Socialising at 39,000ft
The Loft extends the airline’s world-renowned Clubhouse experience to the skies, offering a wide range of cocktails, and the option for customers to dine together and enjoy Mile High afternoon tea by Eric Lanlard and a selection of delicious new dishes by Donal Skehan. As well as enjoying luxe comfort and high-end finishes, customers can settle in with Bluetooth headphones and connect to the 32-inch screen to catch a show or watch the live tail cam.
The Loft is not the only innovation to the Upper Class cabin; guests will also be able to experience an entirely new suite, which has been designed in collaboration with a number of Virgin Atlantic’s most frequent flyers.
A New Look Business Class Cabin
In the new-look Upper Class cabin, every seat faces towards the window and offers deployable privacy screens and direct aisle access. Laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration, every suite has a 44-inch pitch and converts into a fully-flat bed with a length of up to 82-inches. The new suite product also boasts Virgin Atlantic’s largest-ever in-flight entertainment screen, at 18.5-inches and features an intuitive new entertainment system that can be controlled by a customer’s own personal device.
Perks Throughout the Aircraft
Passengers travelling in Virgin Atlantic’s award-winning Premium cabin and its Economy cabin will also be able to enjoy the increased levels of luxury and comfort on the A350; both have the largest entertainment screens ever offered by the airline – 13.3-inches in Premium and 11.6-inches in Economy – while Premium customers will also enjoy a 7-inch recline, increased space for storage, a four way adjustable headrest and a luxurious leather seat.
Economy seats have been upgraded with new adjustable headrests, with Economy Light and Classic featuring a 31-inch seat pitch and Economy Delight offering 34 inches. The entire aircraft will also have access to high-speed wifi.
“The introduction of our A350 represents a true evolution of our customer experience,” says Mark Anderson, executive vice president, customer, at Virgin Atlantic. “We believe flying should be exciting, whether it’s your first or 100th flight with us and that’s why we’ve elevated our offering to provide our customers with something totally unique. The A350 forms a significant part of our fleet transformation strategy and by 2022, we’ll have our youngest, cleanest, greenest fleet in the sky as the aircraft transforms our customer experience, reduces our environmental impact and improves our route economics.”
The first A350 will take to the skies in August, as it flies from London Heathrow to New York JFK, followed by other services to JFK later in the year. Virgin Atlantic has ordered a total of 12 Airbus A350-1000, with them all scheduled to join the fleet by 2021 in an order worth an estimated US$4.4 billion.
The aircraft, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines, continues Virgin Atlantic’s investment in a more sustainable fleet. The aircraft is designed to be 30 percent more fuel and carbon-efficient than the aircraft it replaces and is expected to reduce the airline’s noise footprint at its airports by more than half.
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