A Virgin Atlantic A330 aircraft soaring through the sky
A Virgin Atlantic A330 aircraft soaring through the sky

Our story

Since Virgin Atlantic launched, it’s held the imagination of the travelling public

Where our story took flight

It’s easy to look to things like innovative products and services, glamorous destinations and charismatic crew in bright red uniforms as the reasons for our success. But these are just part of our story. The personality and language of our brand plays a major role too, and to get a grasp on why, it’s useful to look at our past.

A historical photo from 1980 with Richard Branson for Virgin Atlantic

It all started in 1984

In the UK, boom time had arrived, and a lot of people had more money to spend, with a greater desire to explore the world. The airline world hadn’t changed much at all and there wasn’t much choice, each country only had its state owned legacy airline. Expensive, with little emphasis on the customers’ needs, if you needed to get somewhere, you only had one airline to choose from. And what a dull, grey experience that was.

 

The time was right for someone to come in and shake things up. And did we ever.

With a parent brand that had owned a music label and record stores, we used marketing and public relations to our advantage. Using the same skill we’d developed promoting the likes of Culture Club and Simple Minds, we set out to inspire the public to fly with us. We flew to desirable destinations. We came up with innovative new products and services that would make the journey much more fun. We hired happy people with lively personalities to be our cabin crew. And we didn’t charge the earth.

We gave people a choice. A bright red, fun, friendly, fabulous choice that made travel attainable for everyone. Back then, our personality was cheeky and over the top. We were a tiny airline up against much bigger players. We needed to use quite radical language to get attention. We were the airline that loudly proclaimed ‘BA doesn’t give a shiatsu’ to promote our onboard massages. ‘Play with yourself’ was the way we chose to advertise the first ever seatback games. Not exactly subtle, but it got us noticed.

Historical photo of Richard Branson dressed in a pirate costume at London Heathrow airport

The visionary behind our story

Richard Branson, our enthusiastic chairman, did anything to get attention for his businesses, including hot air ballooning, abseiling down Manhattan high rises or kissing Spice Girls. The more he got in the news for his adventures, the more Virgin Atlantic became renowned as the airline you flew if you wanted an adventure.

 

His personality became our airline’s personality. ‘Screw it, let’s do it’ was Richard’s philosophy, and it served us well too as we grew, launching new destinations and taking on the airline world with our emphasis on exceptional service. As we arrived in new markets, his fame had often beaten us there, and it was easy for us to tap into his personality to establish ours.

Throughout the 80s and early 90s, we continued to lead the pack. Sleepy legacy carriers were too slow, or too entrenched in their ways to catch up with us. And even if they did, we’d dream up something even more innovative. As our business established itself in markets appealing to business travellers, then our personality slowly had to change too. The cheeky language we’d employed to encourage people to fly with us on their holidays was no longer quite as appropriate to talk to a business audience - although we still managed to promote our seatback screens as ‘nine inches of pure pleasure.’

But as much as people enjoyed flying with us, we didn’t fly everywhere, so they often had to fly with somebody else. In 2012, we formed an alliance with Delta Air Lines to offer our customers access to an even greater network, seamless travel and reciprocal frequent flyer benefits. In 2019, we extended this to join forces with Air France KLM, to offer passengers even more choice and value.

Historical photo of Virgin Atlantic cabin crew

Changing travel for good

And while, we may have done away with attention-seeking ways of our past, we have continued to forge ahead on the issues that truly matter - all with our signature Virgin flair of course. In 2014, the first of our 17 787 Dreamliners join our fleet, helping reduce our CO2 emissions by 18%.

 

Vivienne Westwood redesigned our iconic red uniforms made from 25% recycled plastic. In 2016, we launched a three-year plan to become one of the most inclusive companies in travel, going on to fly the UK's first ever 'Pride Flight' in 2019, sponsoring and attending nationwide Pride events and joining forces with Open For Business in 2020 to campaign for LGBTQ+ equality in the Caribbean. 

 

As you can see, we've come a long way! And we're just getting started.