07 SEP 2017: As I write this, my old boss Richard Branson is battening down the hatches at his home in the British Virgin Islands in preparation for the imminent arrival of an extremely unwelcome guest by the name of Irma. Here’s wishing him and the staff on Necker and Moskito islands a safe passage through what is shaping up to be a pretty grueling experience.
This week, another of Richard’s properties, Virgin Atlantic was in the news for becoming the first European airline to offer WiFi across its entire fleet. This relatively ho-hum news got me thinking about some of the more outlandish and fun ‘firsts’ the “little airline that could” has recorded over its first three decades. Some worked, some didn’t but as the saying goes, “nothing ventured …”.
The upstart carrier began service from London Gatwick to Newark New Jersey on June 22nd 1984, with a single Boeing 747-200 that had previously been operated by Aerolineas Argentinas: Coming so soon after the UK’s Falklands/Malvinas dust up, at the time this was not a wide factly advertised. On that early series “Jumbo”, a tight spiral staircase was the only means of access to the upper deck, where Virgin had installed about a dozen ‘Upper Class’ (J class) seats and a lounge area.
Wanting to create a radically superior business class experience, we decided that our Upper Class passengers would enjoy truly gourmet food prepared by the (then) very chic restaurant ‘Maxims of Paris.’ And, rather than ‘stewards and stewardesses’ as they were then known, these culinary delights would be delivered by ‘butlers’ in full bow-tied, tail-coated regalia. Ambitious? Yes, and it might have worked beautifully but for two small problems.
First, the French delicacies and their elaborate sauces that were exquisite when freshly prepared by a chef over an open flame on the ground, were never quite the same when reheated hours later in a convection oven at 35,000 feet. Secondly, the butlers’ long coat tails and Boeing’s steep spiral staircase was a match made in hell. After a succession of minor catastrophes – a combination of crewmembers refusing to risk life and limb negotiating the stairs in their “monkey suits” and Maxim’s concerns about the aerial damage to their reputation for haute cuisine – the noble experiment met with a rapid denouement.
The next, more successful, ‘Virginnovation’ was with inflight entertainment (IFE). In the mid eighties what was loosely described as IFE usulaay consisted of uncomfortable, lousy audio quality, rubber-tube headsets and a few drop-down screens interspersed along the ceiling of the cabin. Depending on the length of the flight, these offered grainy video quality on one, maybe two, “take-it-or-leave-it” movies.
In economy we replaced the rubber tubes with cool electronic headsets that were the passenger’s to keep. To go with the greatly improved sound quality and comfort we expanded the IFE content to include TV sitcoms and music videos as well as two or three movies. In Upper Class – in the absence of the in-seat screens that followed a few years later – we bought a boatload of Sony’s Video Walkman MP3 players. The passengers were offered a choice of multiple movies to watch in their own time, which was great except again for one minor snag: While the average movie was about 90-minutes long, the Walkman’s battery life was (oops!) about 75 minutes! They also tended to disappear at an alarming rate – maybe that was why they were called ‘Walkmen’? These kind of problems all went away when we eventually became the first airline to feature screens in every seatback.
But the video players weren’t the only things to walk off the aircraft. Albeit they were far less costly, the Upper Class meal setup’s salt & pepper-shakers, in the shape of cute little chunky airplanes were also a popular ‘souvenir’ with our passengers. In this case, rather than try and deter it, we instead inscribed the words, “Pinched from Virgin Atlantic” on their undersides, which had the desired effect of making them an instant collectors’ item.
Along the same lines, to this day, if you inspect a butter knife in Upper Class you’ll see that, unlike the rest of the cutlery that carries the words, “Stainless Steel for Virgin Atlantic,” these knives are inscribed, “Stainless Steal from Virgin Atlantic.” Gottcha!
Perhaps Virgin’s wildest ever innovation, was the onboard massage and manicure program. This came from a brainstorming session with cabin crew, one of whom also worked a part-time job on the ground as a manicurist. She famously introduced the idea with the words, “I know this is a really stupid idea but wouldn’t it be nice if…”. We immediately thought it was actually a wonderful idea and for many years thereafter Upper Class passengers were treated to onboard head and shoulder massages and (until post 9/11 security regulations banned the scissors) full manicures. When we introduced shiatsu therapy, it inspired one of our more memorable advertising billboards: Strategically located en route from London to Heathrow, it read, “British Airways Doesn’t Give a Shiatsu.”
But back to Irma: In an update, I’ve just learned that the eye of the storm is about to pass right over Necker Island with winds clocked at 185 mph. Richard and the staff, along with a Noah’s Ark-like assortment of the island’s wildlife, including lemurs and giant tortoises, have taken refuge in the main house’s concrete – exceedingly well stocked – wine cellar. If nothing else it beats worrying about running out of water!
In all seriousness however, our prayers should be with last week’s Harvey victims and now everyone else in Irma’s path whose lives are going to be indelibly scarred by this mother of all storms.
This just in …
Sam Branson, Richard’s 32-year-old son took to Instagram late last night with, “Glad to report that all humans on Necker are ok. Sad to say that most of the buildings have been destroyed and the main house is uninhabitable, making me concerned for our friends and everyone on the neighboring islands … Please don’t take this hurricane lightly if it’s headed your way.”