Virgin Atlantic for many years has had the flying lady on the nose… and sometimes the back of the plane.
The Flying Lady/Birthday girl – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
The original design inspired by Alberto Vargas in the 1930s and 1940s. However, times have changed. And it’s time to welcome the Flying Icons that promote inclusion and diversification. And there’s a lot in these first five.
The new Flying Icons – Images, Virgin Atlantic.
The flying icons will fly initially aboard the Airbus A350-1000, with five new figureheads, with a further eight to follow
Like a lot of companies, Virgin Atlantic is tackling the gender pay gap and increase diversity and inclusion across the business. The new Flying Icons are part of this to be mirroed in look and feel of the brand.
The airline is aiming to have a 50:50 gender balance in leadership roles, as well as at least 12% black, Asian and minority ethnic group (BAME) representation across the company, by 2022.
Virgin Atlantic has been tackling a lot of things to bring more inclusion in the company including being first company to show a same sex couple in our ad imagery in India, the will be the first airline to have male figureheads on our aircraft, and also dropping the requirements to wear makeup – and allowing trousers or a skit to be worn.
In quotes
Nikki Humphrey Senior Vice President, People at Virgin Atlantic said:
“The saying goes ‘You can’t be what you can’t see’ and that has never been truer than the aviation industry’s glamourous image in the past,”
“We’ve been working for a number of years to tackle our gender pay gap, create an inclusive workplace and increase the diversity of our workforce, through the development of our Springboard scheme for women, as well as the launch of engineering apprenticeships. By introducing our new Flying Icons I hope it encourages people from all backgrounds to feel at home flying with us, but also working with us.”
Inclusion is everything
As we move to an age where ensuring the all need to be included, rather than the few, Virgin Atlantic has taken a bold step to update its figurehead – and established part of the Virgin Atlantic brand since day one. With the changes in uniform requirements, as well as trying to modernise the brand (whilst keeping the flair of Virgin, it seems the airline has done a reasonable job of adding to its image.
And that’s to be welcomed.
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I wonder if this will eventually extend to plane names too? There are a few planes that have relatively neutral names, but most of them refer to women. The “Spirit of Sir Freddie” was the only VA plane that carried a man’s name, and it was retired many years ago.
If they are going to go with men on the naming, the “Spirit of Sir Freddie 2” should be the first one up, IMO.