Virgin Australia Takes “The Business” Cabin Upgrade Overseas

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    Image via Virgin Australia
    Virgin Australia’s The Business cabin in reverse herringbone layout. Images via Virgin Australia

    APEX Insight: Virgin Australia’s recently unveiled “The Business” service brings first-class standards to business class. The cabin overhaul signals a bold shift in the airline’s brand image, with customer-centric design feats to rival international competitors.

    Passengers departing from Abu Dhabi to Sydney now get to experience Virgin Australia’s award-winning international business class upgrade, currently flying on the carrier’s wide-body fleets of Airbus A330-200 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. The international service, which launched at Los Angeles International Airport on July 20, aims to escalate Virgin’s brand image abroad and lure international business travelers away from its rivals.

    “The project started about three years ago, and really it was all about knowing what our customers want,” Ben Asmar, head of Customer Experience and Business Transformation, Virgin Australia, explained during a presentation at Future Travel Experience Global in Las Vegas last week. “We already had a lie-flat on B777s and a bar, so why change? Because, really, we weren’t meeting customer expectations anymore.”

    The transformation, orchestrated in conjunction with London design agency tangerine, includes several passenger-centric upgrades. Rearranged from a 2-3-2 layout to a reverse herringbone 1-2-1 seating arrangement, the reconfigured floor plan provides all business-class passengers with direct-aisle access without compromising on capacity. In lie-flat position, the tailored B/E Aerospace Super Diamond seats extend to 80 inches in length, the equivalent of a queen-size bed, and the longest seats on offer over the east coast of Australia. Virgin Australia also boasts the widest seat on US routes at 28 inches in lie-flat mode, stretching three inches wider than its closest competitor.

    Greater control offered by touch-seat commands, improved graphic user interfaces on 18-inch Red Panasonic eX2 in-flight entertainment systems, a custom-made tablet holder and purple-infused in-seat mood lighting have contributed to the cabin’s 95-percent customer satisfaction rating and 20-percent improvement in sales.

    Virgin Australia Business Class Bar

    “The challenge for us was to take our brand as a low-cost airline, and reposition it as a premium brand,” Asmar explained. Situated at the cabin entrance, the newly designed business-class bar delivers a bold statement to travelers, offering face-to-face service for up to four guests in view of Virgin Australia’s signature flag-bearing flying woman. “It’s the first point where the passenger arrives on the aircraft,” said Daniel Flashman, tangerine’s senior designer and Asmar’s co-presenter. “This is Virgin Australia’s brand statement.” With space as an invaluable commodity, the bar cleverly borrows the area above the ottoman of a business-class seat for a counter ledge.

    In line with recent front-of-cabin programs such as United’s Polaris service, Virgin’s redesign enhances its business-class product with first-class accoutrements. “What’s the future of premium travel?” Asmar asked. “I think it’s more of an evolution than a revolution. It will be innovations in first class coming down to business class.”