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Virgin Atlantic Airways usually referred to as Virgin Atlantic, is one of the airlines of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, operating long-haul routes between London and North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Its main bases are London Heathrow (LHR) and London Gatwick (LGW), with a smaller base at Manchester International Airport (MAN). The company holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, it is permitted to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.*
Conception and Birth Virgin Atlantic's story began in 1982 when Randolph Fields, an American-born lawyer, set up British Atlantic Airways as a direct successor to Laker Airways. However, in order to obtain regulatory approval, Fields needed further financial backing. He met Richard Branson at a "high society" 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 now renamed airline and became Virgin Atlantic's first chairman. Following a series of disagreements over operational issues, Fields agreed to be bought out for an initial sum of £1 million with further payment due upon Virgin's first dividend payment. Following a High Court action, such 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 Airport and Newark using a single, leased Boeing 747-200, formerly operated by Aerolineas Argentina. The airline became profitable during its first year of operation. The company was able to do this because it used cash flow from the then already well-established Virgin Records business 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
Subsequent developments 49% of Virgin Atlantic was sold to Singapore Airlines in December 1999 for £600.25 million. In August 2002, Virgin became the first airline to use the Airbus A340-600. Rolls-Royce have won all recent engine competitions for Virgin aircraft; the company's Trent 500s will power the A340s and the Trent 900 will power A380s on order. Growing rivalry with British Airways Virgin Atlantic has been a bitter rival of British Airways since its inception. 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 Atlantics 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 people'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 thousands of 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 used to live 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" had come into effect in January 1978 and were applied retrospectively from the beginning of April 1977. These rules were designed to achieve a "fairer" distribution of traffic between London Heathrow Airport and London Gatwick Airport, the UK's two main international gateway airports. (At the time Gatwick was still underutilised and losing money.) 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 British Airports Authority, which ran both Heathrow and Gatwick on behalf of the Government, 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. BAs response The decision to open up Heathrow to all newcomers - other than those governed by Bermuda II - angered BA's then chairman, the late Lord King of Wartnaby, who stopped British Airways' donations to the Conservative Party, which was ruling Britain at the time, in protest. Lord King was furthermore angered at 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 taking advantage of BAs self-inflicted travails 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 *. 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 the hapless Robert Ayling, a key player in the "dirty tricks" affair who was dismissed by Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge, the long-serving BA chairman and Mr. Ayling's chief mentor, on behalf of BA's main institutional shareholders after BA had suffered a record loss of £200m on Mr. Ayling's watch during the late 1990s. Incidents and accidents
Flying With Virgin
Destinations Just over half of Virgin's flights leave London from London Heathrow, with the remainder leaving from London Gatwick. There are also daily services from Manchester International Airport to Orlando, and weekly services to Bridgetown and St Lucia (starting 16 November 2006). Virgin flights between the United Kingdom and the United States or the Bahamas bear special names, such as The Trance Atlantic (Miami-Heathrow), The London Shuttle (Boston-Heathrow) or The Rising Star (Los Angeles-Heathrow). More information is available at their dedicated website: VirginAtlanticFlights.com. Fleet
Virgins Slogans Over the years, Virgin has used many slogans, including: 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". Events in 2005 On 15 August 2005, Virgin Atlantic, which flies the Kangaroo route between Sydney, Australia and London, UK via Hong Kong, denied it is in talks with part owner Singapore Airlines about extending its code sharing arrangements from Singapore to Sydney. Virgin Atlantic, 49% owned by Singapore Airlines, began flying between Sydney and the UK via Hong Kong in December 2004. To celebrate the airline's 21st birthday the flying lady was temporarily moved to the back of Boeing 747 to create "Birthday Girl". However, in May 2006, the name "Lady Penelope" once again is painted on the fuselage and the '21 years of flying high' stickers have been removed. Ownership Other Further reading See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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