Especially when compared with fellow UK carrier British Airways,
the fleet of Virgin Atlantic is a much simpler and smaller collection of aircraft. Indeed,
the fleet of British Airways is nearly eight times larger than the subject of today's video. Having
shrunk drastically due to the pandemic, let's take a deep dive into the fleet of Virgin Atlantic.
According to Planespotters.net, these are the aircraft types operating for Virgin Atlantic
at the time of this article's publication, including their quantities, and average ages:
10 Airbus A330-300s with an average age of nearly 11 years
1 brand new Airbus A330-900 9 Airbus A350-1000s averaging nearly three years
and 17 Boeing 787-9s with an average age of six and a half years
A few obvious things stand out with this list of aircraft. First is its startling brevity
with just three types. You'll also notice that all of these aircraft are widebodies,
as well as the fact that they are all twinjets.
Indeed, long gone are the handful of passenger narrowbodies operated by Virgin Atlantic.
The airline said goodbye to its lone Airbus A321-200 in October 2001, while it retired its
last few A320-200s (wet-leased from Aer Lingus) in September 2015. You may or may not have noticed
that we specified the absence of passenger narrowbodies. That's because the airline,
up until the end of October 2022, has been wet-leasing a single A321 freighter
from Titan Airways. Its first foray into operating dedicated freighter aircraft,
the deal with Titan saw a single A321 freighter operating between London and Brussels.
Virgin Atlantic now operates three of the most efficient twinjet widebodies available
on the market: The Airbus A330neo, the A350 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The 787-9s began
arriving in October 2014 and the airline took delivery of its 17th Dreamliner in April 2018.
These jets have three classes and are configured with 31 seats in business class,
35 in premium economy, and 198 in economy class.
The Airbus A350-1000s first arrived at Virgin Atlantic in August of 2019. Announced in 2016,
the order was for 12 of the type which means that the carrier is expecting at least three more.
However, we know that the airline is expecting a total of 14 A350s. This is due to an agreement
for two additional A350-1000s leased from Air Lease Corporation (ALC). The carrier will take
delivery of these particular aircraft in 2023 and 2024, adding to its existing order with Airbus.
One notable aspect of Virgin Atlantic's Airbus A350s is what the airline calls “The Booth.”
This special feature is a cozy corner available on the airline's flagship where customers will
be able to socialize and dine with each other. Passengers can also pay for a special inflight
wine tasting experience with drinks provided by The Uncommon, a UK producer of wine and spritzers.
The Booth was first installed on the A350 registered G-VEVE. The
aircraft is named Fearless Lady after Richard Branson's mother, Eve Branson.
G-VLIB was the second A350 to have the feature installed. However,
Virgin Atlantic wants a total of three A350-1000s to have this special Leisure Configuration.
On this topic, Corneel Koster, Chief Customer and Operations Officer at Virgin Atlantic commented,
“We’re famous for our onboard social spaces and the introduction of The Booth elevates
the customer proposition for our leisure travelers to new heights. We love creating
brilliantly different experiences, which is why we’re always evolving
our ideas to offer something different and exciting in the air and on the ground."
In June of 2019 at the Paris Air Show that the carrier announced that it would be modernizing its
fleet with the acquisition of 14 A330-900s. This order also included an additional six as options.
In the original announcement, these were slated to replace its A330ceos from 2021. The plan was for
the incoming jets to be a one-for-one replacement of its 14 Airbus A330ceos (current engine option).
However, even before the new -900s appeared, the carrier's four A330-200s were phased out.
This took place in 2020 with two of the four aircraft now being
marked as quote-unquote "partially scrapped."
As for the arrival of the first of 14 A330neos, this took place on October 15th - slightly
later than the original 2021 entry-into-service plan. Of these 14, eight jets will be purchased
by the carrier outright while six will be on lease from Air Lease Corporation (ALC).
In early August, we reported that seats on these new jets had become bookable. The first
service to feature the brand-new aircraft will be flights between London Heathrow
and Boston Logan. The inaugural flight was initially set for October 12th but this was
pushed back to October 27th. The jets will feature a three class configuration with 32
seats in business class, 46 in premium economy, and 184 in standard economy.
The new jets will also include a social space. Similar to the A350 "booth" but
instead known as "The Loft," this will be a space for eight people. The airline says that
this will "allow guests to sit and chat or enjoy refreshments from the new self-service
fridge and drinks dispenser. Customers can also connect Bluetooth headphones to the
dual panoramic 27” touchscreens or utilise the wireless charging facilities for their devices."
As just noted, the airline’s very first Airbus A330neo was delivered on October
15th. The jet is registered G-VJAZ and is named after famous jazz singer Billie
Holiday - probably because the aircraft’s registration could also be read as V-jazz.
On the day of the aircraft’s delivery, it departed Toulouse at 15:15 and made the short 90-minute
flight to Heathrow to arrive at 15:48 local time. Prior to its exciting delivery flight,
the jet was first spotted on May 3rd and took its very first test flight on August 12th.
The 2020 pandemic had a massive impact on the Virgin Atlantic fleet. While we
saw carriers like British Airways and KLM also retire their Boeing 747s,
Virgin Atlantic said goodbye to its last few Airbus A340 aircraft as well. Additionally,
given the already small fleet size of the UK carrier, the retirement of its seven 747-400s,
two Airbus A340-600s (and the aforementioned four A330-200s) represented a loss of around a third
of the fleet. Of course, given the massive size of the quad jets, the capacity loss was much greater.
The airline had planned to retire the 747 from the fleet in late 2021. However,
this was brought forward due to COVID-19. Virgin Atlantic states that its very last
747 passenger flight had flight number VS608, and was a Covid-19 rescue flight,
from Los Angeles to London Heathrow on March 30th, 2020 operated by G-VROS. Reflecting
on the end of its 747 operations, Virgin Atlantic stated the following on its website:
"We’ve had thirty 747s in our fleet over the years and welcomed millions
of customers onboard. Our customers loved flying on them, and our people loved working on them.
Aircraft enthusiasts eulogise about their shape and classic lines. And
yet we’re talking about an aircraft designed in the 1960s. It’s rare for
a machine to have such longevity, and even rarer to garner such affection."
Over the 36 years of 747 operations, 30 different 747s flew for the airline. This
includes 14 747-200s, 13 747-400s and just one 747-100. One 747-400
continues to fly for another Virgin Group member, Virgin Galactic. This special and very lucky jumbo
jet was modified after flying for Virgin Atlantic from 2001 to 2015 as G-VWOW. These days, flying
under registration number N744VG, the aircraft's purpose is to carry a rocket – named Launcher
One – underneath its wing. Released at high altitude, this rocket sends satellites into orbit.
2020 also saw Virgin Atlantic phase out its remaining Airbus A340s: A pair of -600s
retired in March 2020. Prior to the last A340s leaving, the carrier had begun slowly phasing
out most of its A340s from 2011. In total, the airline operated 10 A340-300s and 19 A340-600s.
Interestingly, while the 747s were removed slightly ahead of schedule,
some of the last Airbus A340s were retired later than expected. This was the result of
the Trent 1000 engine issues that plagued Virgin Atlantic's fleet of Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.
While the A340 is seen as a fairly inefficient and expensive-to-operate aircraft, it does appear
that some of the ex-Virgin quad jets have found new homes. Of particular interest is the single
A340-600 operated by Nigeria's Azman Air and another -600 operated by Venezuela's Conviasa.
With the arrival of the Airbus A330-900s having slowly begun, Virgin Atlantic appears to be closer
to the end of its fleet modernization journey compared to other full-service airlines. This
is especially the case when we compare the carrier to others - in particular,
those operating older 777s which are waiting (and will continue to wait) years for the new 777X.
While Virgin Atlantic's aircraft modernization process covers a 10 year period, it's at least
crystal clear which aircraft are being replaced and the timeline on which things will take place.
Have you flown with Virgin Atlantic Airways recently? What's your favorite aircraft
from this fleet? Share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment.