Virgin Atlantic Takes Delivery Of Its 9th Airbus A350-1000
UK airline Virgin Atlantic took delivery of its 9th Airbus A350-1000 this past week. The delivery took place on April 27th, with the airline now having an all-widebody fleet of 37 aircraft. The name of this aircraft, ‘Lady Emmeline’, was announced on March 8th to celebrate International Women's Day.
Delivery details
Taking place on Wednesday, April 27th, Airbus delivered the A350-1000 registered G-VLIB to Virgin Atlantic. Data from FlightRadar24.com shows that the aircraft with MSN 507 departed Toulouse at 12:36 local time and made the 93-minute flight to London Heathrow, touching down at 13:05 local.
Prior to the aircraft’s delivery, it had accumulated a total of nine test flight hours (eight hours and 54 minutes to be precise) across four flights. The aircraft was first spotted in Toulouse without its engines back on December 16th, 2021.
G-VLIB’s special name and story
Having a strong history of naming its aircraft with feminine names and nicknames such as "Tinker Belle," "Cosmic Girl," and "Beauty Queen," Virgin Atlantic continues this tradition with a slight twist.
Indeed, while the story of this new A350-1000 has just begun, the person it’s been named after has already made it into the history books. The aircraft has been given the nickname Lady Emmeline, which Virgin Atlantic describes as an "homage to the founder of the Suffragette movement and women’s rights activist, Emmeline Pankhurst."
The airline adds that Pankhurst was the leader of the Women’s Social and Political Union, and was instrumental in securing the right to vote for women in the UK at the turn of the last century.
"In tribute to its feminist namesake, all charitable donations received onboard Lady Emmeline will be distributed to a selection of women’s charities when the plane starts flights next year." -Virgin Atlantic
As the airline explains in a recent blog, the International Women's Day announcement was meant to celebrate women in aviation. Estelle Hollingsworth, chief people officer at Virgin Atlantic went on to say that it was focused on "being a fair, diverse, and inclusive employer that attracts the best talent, regardless of gender.”
Five more A350 deliveries remain for Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic initially placed its order for 12 A350-1000s back in 2016. At the time of the announcement, Craig Kreeger, CEO Virgin Atlantic said:
"The size of this order demonstrates our absolute focus on investing in the future for our customers and our people, and confirms the strength of our business. The A350-1000 plays a pivotal role in our fleet programme, helping to create one of the youngest, cleanest, greenest fleets in the sky."
The airline took delivery of its first back in August 2019, taking an additional three during the remainder of 2019 and another three over the course of 2020. Just one was delivered to Virgin Atlantic in 2021.
In mid-December of 2021, it was announced that the carrier would be adding two additional A350-1000s to its fleet via a lease agreement with Air Lease Corporation (ALC). This brings the airline's total A350 commitment to 14 aircraft.
No comments:
Post a Comment