BIG NEWS: Virgin Atlantic to refurbish B787 fleet, add Starlink, refurbish Clubhouses

Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss unveiled a raft of customer experience upgrades at an event in London tonight which we attended.

It is a cornucopia of announcements, including:

• The roll-out of Starlink wifi
• A commitment to refurbish the Boeing 787 fleet
• Bigger Upper Class and Premium cabins
• Refurbished Clubhouses in London and New York
• New amenity kits
• A new app
• An Open AI partnership
• New Flying Club recognition scheme for people who travel infrequently but regularly

It marks the biggest investment in the airline’s customer experience in years. Here’s what you can expect:

Virgin Atlantic will adopt Starlink wifi

You may remember my article about Qatar Airways’ astonishing new Starlink wifi, which I called a “genuine game-changer”.

The service, which relies on thousands of satellites orbiting the earth, delivered speeds of 200Mbps. This is better than the wifi speeds in our office, and was suitable for both Rob and I to do a full days’ work on board, gate to gate.

It is a real quantum leap in onboard connectivity, putting even terrestrial services to shame – the wifi and 4G/5G services on my Eurostar trip a few weeks later were pitiful in comparison.

It’s fantastic news to hear that Virgin Atlantic will be installing Starlink across its fleet, streaming quality wifi in all cabins.

It will be free to all passengers. This is a condition of adopting Starlink – it’s so good that airlines are willing to give up their existing wi-fi revenue in order to offer it.

Virgin Atlantic plans to begin installing the antennas in 2026, with the intention of making it available from Q3 2026 onwards. It says it expects to complete the installation across its entire fleet of Boeing 787s, Airbus A350s and A330neos by the end of 2027. The older A330s will not be upgraded as they are planned to be retired by 2028.

It is hard to explain how revolutionary Starlink wifi is until you have tried it.

British Airways will not be pleased that Virgin Atlantic has pipped it to the post – Bloomberg reported in December that IAG was in talks with Starlink over a wifi deal that has not, yet, materialised.

AT LAST: Virgin will refurbish its Boeing 787 fleet!

Better late than never …. we have been asking Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss for years (literally) when he will commit to refurbishing the ageing Boeing 787 cabins.

I’m pleased to say he has finally relented ….

The airline’s 14 Boeing 787-9 aircraft, although less than ten years old, sport Upper Class cabins that were first installed in 2003 and designed long before that (image above).

These seats are so narrow that they were christened ‘coffin class’ and do not live up to a modern standards. There is virtually no privacy, old tech and virtually no storage.

Many HfP readers have told us that they refuse to book Virgin Atlantic, even when a modern aircraft is scheduled, because the risk of an aircraft swap to a Boeing 787 is not worth taking.

The good news is that the days of the 2003-era Upper Class seat are numbered. Starting in 2028, Virgin Atlantic will refurbish its Boeing 787s from top-to-toe with cabins “inspired by the award-winning A330neo design”.

In Upper Class, this means the latest iteration of Virgin’s Upper Class Suite, reviewed here, which is based on the Thompson Vantage XL seat. These are smart, comfortable seats and light years ahead of the current cabins:

It will mean that the entire Virgin Atlantic fleet will finally have modern business class seating by the end of the decade. The days of the Upper Class seat roulette will be over.

Virgin Atlantic will also introduce its ‘business plus’ Retreat Suite (reviewed here, image below) on the Boeing 787s for the first time, with EIGHT Retreat Suites available. This suggests the new Upper Class cabin will extend beyond the second set of doors, with a forward and rear Upper Class cabin.

In addition, Virgin Atlantic will increase the size of its premium cabins. It is going from 31 to 44 Upper Class seats and adding an extra 21 Premium seats for a total of 56. To make space for all this, economy will reduce from 192 seats to 127 seats.

The downside? The bar is being removed to fit in the extra Upper Class seats.

The refurbishment will begin in 2028 and is scheduled to be complete by 2030.

It’s also worth noting that Virgin Atlantic seems to have retained the option to retain more than 14 787s. The decision to slim the fleet to 14 is not as firm as had been implied.

…. and new A330neos will also feature more Upper Class and Premium seats

Expanding its push for premium seats, Virgin Atlantic’s next batch of factory-fresh A330-900neos will be delivered with more Upper Class and Premium seats.

The Upper Class cabin will grow from 32 to 48 seats whilst Premium will gain an additional ten seats, to 56.

An additional row of four Retreat Suites will also be added to these aircraft, for a total of six per plane – presumably two in Row 1 and a further four at the front of a rear Upper Class cabin.

Clubhouse refurbishments in London and New York

Virgin’s Heathrow Clubhouse (review here) may be one of the best business class lounges in the world, but it is getting long in the tooth. The Clubhouse opened in 2007 and whilst minor refurbishments have happened since, it still retains the broad layout of when it was built.

Virgin Atlantic unveiled what appeared to be a new look for its Clubhouses at the opening of the brand new Clubhouse in Los Angeles, which I reviewed here.

This is the airline’s first new lounge in a decade and marks a departure from its older Clubhouses, with darker, more velvety materials and a sunset colour palette of purples oranges and golds.

It’s only fair that Virgin’s flagship Clubhouses gets the same treatment, so it is committing to a “multi-million-pound investment” for both the Heathrow and New York JFK spaces. This will update “the look and feel of both flagship spaces to provide an even greater sense of comfort.”

It is also rolling out more signature food and beverage creations both in the lounge and onboard, including the Clubhouse Burger, Read Head cocktail, Mile High Tea, Virgin Atlantic Bloody Mary and Cherry Pie in the Sky ice cream.

There’s more ….

No stone is being left unturned. Shai also outlined a number of other initiatives that will roll out over the coming years including:

• New amenity kits with skincare brand Votary. Face creams, mists, multi-balms and hand creams will all be on board from the beginning of next year. Presumably this will also roll out to Clubhouses at a later stage.
• A new app focused on Flying Club with “improved personalisation” will launch later this year – a long time coming given the current state of the app, which gives BA a run for its money as ‘least useful’ ….
• A partnership with OpenAI – a first for a European airline – to integrate real time voice and “emotionally intelligent” AI concierge services. Virgin says it will be accessible via its new app with “personalised, hands-free assistance when needed, anytime, anywhere and in any language.”
• A new Flying Club benefit that will acknowledge “multi-year loyalty for guests who do not travel often enough to achieve tier status progression.” It’s worth noting that there seems to be a commitment to NOT move to revenue based tier status.

Conclusion

Today’s announcements are huge news for Virgin Atlantic.

The last five years have been tough for Virgin Atlantic and Shai has had to make some difficult decisions in order to keep the airline afloat during covid.

It’s good to see Virgin Atlantic refocus on the customer, with a bumper crop of announcements and investment to come over the next five years. That said, beyond the new app we won’t see anything until the end of 2026 when the first Starlink and new configuration A330neo aircraft appear.

The installation of Starlink wifi and the full refurbishment of the Boeing 787 fleet will arguably have the greatest impact and put the biggest gripes to bed. It will, however, be 2030 before you can book a Virgin Atlantic flight with 100% certainty of not getting the ‘coffin’ suite.

Never one to miss a good PR opportunity, a lot of the announcements today are light on detail. I suspect we will see Virgin Atlantic provide more information as and when these upgrades are ready to launch.

But after five years of surviving, here’s to five years of thriving ….

Further reading:

• What’s it like using Starlink wifi when flying?
• Virgin Altantic’s latest Upper Class suite reviewed
• Is Virgin’s Retreat Suite front-row business class worth the money?
• Our review of the new Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Los Angeles
• From last year: an interview with Shai Weiss on the future of Virgin Atlantic