Virgin Atlantic is a pretty conservative airline when it comes to growth (for good reason… it’s not profitable). Along those lines, the airline has just placed an aircraft order, which tell us a lot about the carrier’s future fleet plans.
Virgin Atlantic further modernizes fleet
Virgin Atlantic has today announced that it has placed a firm order for an additional seven Airbus A330-900neo aircraft. The airline describes this order as completing the company’s fleet transformation plan, so that’s interesting.
With this update, Virgin Atlantic now has 19 of these jets on order. The airline already has five of these aircraft in its fleet, with the first having been delivered in late 2022. Virgin Atlantic expects to have all 19 jets in its fleet by 2028.
The A330-900neo is the most modern and fuel efficient version of the A330. It’s a step below the A350 in terms of capacity. Virgin Atlantic offers a nice passenger experience on this jet, and I’ve reviewed the carrier’s A330-900neo Upper Class (Virgin Atlantic’s name for business class).
Here’s how Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss describes this order:
“Today, we complete our multi-billion-dollar fleet transformation, with the purchase of seven additional A330-900s, which we know our customers and our people love to fly. Flying the youngest fleet is the most readily available and significant lever towards decarbonising long-haul aviation and we are proud to already operate one of the youngest and most fuel and carbon efficient fleets across the Atlantic.”
“Our special partnership with Airbus began with the arrival of ‘Lady in Red’ in 1993, with our most recent arrival, ‘Ruby Rebel’, arriving to mark our 40th birthday this year. Virgin Atlantic has flown more than 60 Airbus tails in the last three decades. While not first to the party, they’ve been our main dance partner, making our customers smile ever since.”
How this fits into Virgin Atlantic’s future fleet
What does this latest Airbus A330-900neo order mean for the future of Virgin Atlantic’s fleet? For context on the carrier’s fleet:
- Virgin Atlantic has 10 Airbus A330-300s, which the airline is in the process of replacing with Airbus A330-900neos
- Virgin Atlantic has 12 Airbus A350-1000s, with an additional two of these jets in order; this is Virgin Atlantic’s flagship aircraft, used for prime routes
- Virgin Atlantic has 17 Boeing 787-9s, which are at this point an average of over eight years old
- Virgin Atlantic has five Airbus A330-900neos, with an additional 14 now on order (accounting for this latest update)
As you can see, we’ve known that the A350-1000 and A330-900neo will be Virgin Atlantic’s primary aircraft going forward, while the A330-300s are being retired.
The big question has been what will happen to the 787-9s. Of course Dreamliners are still modern jets, but there are two considerations:
- The 787-9s are on a 12-year lease, so Virgin Atlantic has the option to get rid of the planes at that point; the planes were acquired between 2014 and 2018, so leases would be up between 2026 and 2030
- The 787-9s have an uncompetitive business class hard product at this point, so if the airline plans to keep these planes around, it needs to introduce new cabins
So there’s an interesting update regarding 787-9s as well. The airline has now signed long-term lease extensions for seven 787-9s. Hopefully this also means that the airline introduces a new passenger experience on these aircraft.
Virgin Atlantic’s plan is to retire some 787-9s, but not all of them. For example, by 2028, Virgin Atlantic expects to have 14 787-9s, so that’s three fewer than the airline has now. At that point Virgin Atlantic expects to have 45 aircraft, roughly the same number of planes that it has now. It doesn’t really seem like the airline wants to grow much, given the profitability issue that the company has.
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic has just placed an order for an additional seven Airbus A330-900neos, which will be delivered by 2028. The airline now has a total of 19 of these jets on order.
Virgin Atlantic has now figured out its long term fleet plan, and intends to have 45 aircraft by 2028. The airline will retire a few Boeing 787s, but is keeping others around for longer. Hopefully that also means that a new business class product is coming to those aircraft.
What do you make of Virgin Atlantic’s incremental A330-900neo order?
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