Virgin Atlantic has launched its most spacious seat in the airline’s history, the Retreat Suite, as it unveiled the latest iteration of its Upper Class cabin.
The new products will appear on the airline’s Airbus A330-900neo aircraft, the first of which Virgin will take delivery of this autumn and deploy on services to Boston.
With the new aircraft, Virgin says it will provide a “premium, personalised experience” for every passenger.
Business class cabins will feature 30 new Upper Class suites (pictured above), with each seat facing fully forwards and featuring a fully-closing privacy door, 17.3-inch touchscreen and passenger-controlled mood lighting.
The airline’s new Retreat Suites, of which there will be two per aircraft, are located together at the front of the Upper Class cabin and comprise 79-inch flatbeds, 27-inch touchscreens and an ottoman, enabling four passengers to meet or dine together.
It is understood that Retreat Suites will not be bookable via GDS channels and will only be made available to book elsewhere within a fortnight of departure “when the chance of aircraft type change is significantly reduced”. Retreat Suite fares will command a mark-up of around £200 on regular Upper Class fares.
Completing the new-look Upper Class cabin is an evolution of Virgin’s popular Loft social space with space for eight passengers.
The airline is not planning to retrofit the new seats on any of its existing fleet.
Premium economy and Upper Class seats will feature in-seat wireless charging, while all passengers will have access to more USB ports, Bluetooth-enabled entertainment systems and the airline’s fastest wifi to date.
The premium economy cabin will have 46 seats with a 38-inch pitch, there will be 28 economy Delight seats with a 34-inch pitch and 156 economy seats with a 31-inch pitch.
Virgin says the addition of the new, more fuel-efficient aircraft type will help it achieve more than a ten per cent saving in carbon emissions over the next decade.
Tickets for the airline’s inaugural A330neo customer flight will go on sale later in July, with the aircraft expected to make its debut in early October on flights between London Heathrow and Boston.
With a daily service to the US city, the carrier can ensure the new products are available on every flight to Boston. For the same reason, flights to Tampa – which Virgin launches services to in November – are also expected to be flown by the new aircraft.
The airline will take delivery of three of the new aircraft from September, with remaining deliveries following between 2023 and 2026.
“When it comes to innovating for our customers, we never stand still. Our desire to create memorable experiences means we’ll continue to imagine with fresh ideas. We care about every detail of the cabin design and every step of our customer’s journey,” said Corneel Koster, chief customer and operating officer at Virgin Atlantic.
“The A330neo plays a significant role in our multi-billion dollar fleet transformation, demonstrating our commitment to the planet. We know the most impactful thing we can do as an airline is to fly the cleanest, greenest, youngest fleet possible and the A330neo is integral to achieving this goal.”
Speaking at a launch event for the new products in Shoreditch, London, Koster said: “2022 marks a new phase for us at Virgin Atlantic. We're shaking off the pandemic. Our vision is clear: to become the most-loved travel company and to become sustainably profitable. The 330neo is integral to that journey. It demonstrates that we're back and we're back in style. It shows we're investing in our customer experience and reducing the impact on our planet.”
On the subject of current travel industry disruption, he added: “We're preparing to fly our customers safely and reliably this summer. We want to ensure passengers reach their destinations as planned. We have already demonstrated that we're in a position to do so by operating schedule reliability of 99.5 per cent for the last six months.
“However, it's rough out there. We're part of an ecosystem and we're not immune to any of these challenges. We will work with out airport partners, other partners, and work relentlessly ourselves to prove the resilience our entire operation.”