Lifestyle: Virgin Atlantic introduces an exciting dining experience in Economy class

Virgin Atlantic has announced a brand new offering in its Economy class cabin with a fresh new take on plane dining.  This new product offering is part of the airline’s recently announced £100 million product investment.

The new service introduced from November 1 will feel much more like a restaurant service with a menu offering a fresh approach to dining on board aircraft including a number of unexpected delights such as a welcome cocktail and a snack tray service!

The new services include the ‘Welcome Cocktail’,  a refreshing mix of fruit juices with or without  vodka,  served in a fabulous new purple glass with a stylish, quirky, new swizzle stick that makes the drink uniquely Virgin Atlantic. Economy passengers will now receive a brand new menu and their meal on a new soft touch, non slip meal tray.  The airline has also introduced new bespoke crockery and unique, ergonomically designed cutlery made from high quality, clear purple plastic.

The meal tray is a third smaller than the current tray offering passengers more space on their tray table.   For shorter flights, a cold breakfast or quintessentially British afternoon tea will now be served in an appealing deli style box adorned with the words ‘High Tea’ or ‘Good Morning’ in the widely spoken languages on board our flights, including German, French, Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin, Arabic and, of course English.

The new separate dessert and hot drink service gives passengers a more comfortable break between courses.    Passengers will now receive bigger desserts, served with a choice of tea, coffee or now a comforting mug of hot chocolate on night flights.  The hot drink will be served in a specially insulated paper cup which is much more like something you would get from a coffee shop on the ground.  The cup will feature the word ‘Slurp’ on the side of the cup in the seven most spoken languages on board our flights.

The new usherette tray is a retro fun way for our cabin crew to serve ice creams.  Crafted in high quality materials and ergonomically designed, the cabin crew will now walk through the aisles wearing the usherette tray offering snacks during the movies.The new soft touch durable tray has meant we have been able to remove the paper tray liner and our new menu is printed on FSC approved, part recycled card.   The new tray is 46% more greenhouse gas efficient over its life cycle than the tray it replaces.

With all these changes, Virgin Atlantic will save 132kilos per aircraft, which is a 4% reduction in CO2, the same amount used to produce 167,000 of our stylish new Economy glass! Steve Griffiths, Chief Operating Officer, comments: “It has been many years now since we last refreshed our economy meal service and I know our passengers will love the new touches we have added.    We have listened to feedback from our passengers and cabin crew and have introduced some different and innovative items into our economy service and we have carefully separated dining into courses – much more like a restaurant service on the ground”

Paul Sands, Head of Customer Experience said:“We have a passionate team of food experts, hospitality managers and designers who have put every single aspect of our meals service under the microscope and our goal was to make sure that any ideas we came up with made our passengers’ journey even better than it was before.”