August 7, 2019
Who doesn’t like to peek at the aircraft and spot its name as they’re about to board a flight? Many of our customers love ticking off all the different planes they’ve flown on, and enthusiasts enjoy discussing our registrations and quirky monikers. Ours have become such a big part of our brand that whenever we receive a new aircraft into our fleet, its special identity gets a lot of attention. This Saturday, our shiny new Airbus A350 is flying in from the Airbus factory in Toulouse. Its registration is G-VLUX, and in true Virgin Atlantic tradition, it also has a unique name; Red Velvet. We’ll get to what that means in a minute. But why do we give our aircraft names in the first place? And where did this odd tradition come from, who chooses the names, and how do they relate to the registration?
Before we get to the name, let’s talk about aircraft registrations. These are unique to each aircraft, with British registrations starting with a G- followed by four letters. All Virgin Atlantic aircraft have V as the first of those four letters, so G-VXXX. Our very first aircraft which took to the skies in June 1984 was a Boeing 747 with the registration G-VIRG. At the time, the giant ‘Virgin’ written on the tailfin was the biggest iteration of the famous logo, but Richard also insisted on another touch to the livery. As a newcomer to the world of aviation, he disliked the way everyone around him was calling G-VIRG ‘Romeo Golf’; the standard way our industry refers to aircraft (by the last two letters of its registration). He wanted to bring a bit of personality to the fleet and asked for our first aircraft to be named Maiden Voyager. Much better. This small touch has endured throughout our history, from long before red engines and our famous flying lady icon.
Naming aircraft isn’t unique to us. Several other airlines do it, but they tend to name theirs after famous people, or landmarks and cities of their home country. We’ve always tried to do it with a bit more panache and fun. After all, our planes will be flying around the world for many years to come, will be seen by millions and appear in countless photos.
To find out more about the process of choosing our aircraft names, we spoke to Liz East from our design team. “Once we have a confirmed order of new aircraft, the internal brand team are given the task of looking at both potential names and registrations. It’s a bit of a complex process and not as easy as just thinking of a list of fun names (though that helps!). As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we always try to have a link between the plane registration and the name. It’s no good coming up with a fabulous name if there’s not an available registration that will work with it.
With all our registrations starting with G-V that leaves three letters to play with. Sometimes we can spell a word beginning with V – for example, G-VAST, Ladybird. But the majority of the time we just have three letters to make a connection to a name. Plus, the last two letters will be the aircraft’s unique call sign, so cannot be the same as the last two letters of any other registration in the Virgin Atlantic fleet. See, I told you it was complex!”
Quite a bit of airline lingo was inherited from the world of shipping. Captains, port, starboard and galleys, to name a few. Even the airbridges you board from are sometimes known as jetties. And of course, all ships have names, and more often than not they are female. Nobody knows when or why people started naming them. It was probably to do with the amount of time sailors spent onboard and the emotional attachments they developed to their temporary homes.
The naming of planes made the jump from the marine world early on. Think Wright Flyer, Memphis Belle or Spirit of St Louis. For airlines, the practice of naming aircraft can also be traced back to the days of flying boats. During this period Pan Am started calling all their aircraft ‘Clippers’; a tradition that carried on right up until they ceased operations. Yet the names on aircraft have no operational purpose. On the ground, they’re still known by the last two letters of their registration, and once on the move, they have their own call sign that’s used to identify and communicate with air traffic control – usually some variation on the flight number.
So why continue to name our planes? We do get incredibly attached to our aircraft, in the same way, some get attached to a much-loved car or bike. Each has its own history, characteristics and memories, and customers often tell us the name of the plane that took them on their honeymoon or dream holiday. They’re the poster children of our airline, featuring in millions of holiday snaps and Instagram posts. It’s all a bit of much-needed fun. Part of that is trying to work out the link between the registration and name. Sometimes it’s easy; G-VSPY, Miss Moneypenny. Sometimes it’s not so obvious; G-VMAP, West End Girl, named after the Pet Shop Boys song and a rather tenuous link to the compass of a map. And then there are the ones that make no sense at all G-VXLG, Ruby Tuesday.
Our names take inspiration from music, film, literature, food, Cockney rhyming slang and more – especially if there’s a British link. Sometimes we look back at previous names of retired aircraft that are just too good not to use again. Usually, a long list is created, then we check if there are appropriate registrations to match, before narrowing it down to the ones that stand out most. It can be tough when you become attached to some names, but there’s always next time!
A few more facts about our aircraft names:
So back to our brand new Airbus G-VLUX Red Velvet. Surely that’s not named after the Korean girl band? Of course not. For LUX read luxury and then think of something red and luxurious. Possibly chosen at about three in the afternoon, it’s named after the delicious treat that is red velvet cake. It remains to be seen if Eric Lanlard will create a special version to fly onboard. We can’t wait to hear what our design team come up with next.
Tick one of our aircraft off your list by visiting our website to book a flight. Our first two gorgeous new Airbus A350s, Red Velvet and Mamma Mia, are now available for booking on flights to New York.
Current fleet | |||
G-VFIT | Airbus | A340-642 | Dancing Queen |
G-VYOU | Airbus | A340-642 | Emmeline Heaney |
G-VRED | Airbus | A340-642 | Scarlet Lady |
G-VWEB | Airbus | A340-642 | Surfer Girl |
G-VSXY | Airbus | A330-343 | Beauty Queen |
G-VKSS | Airbus | A330-343 | Mademoiselle Rouge |
G-VLUV | Airbus | A330-343 | Lady Love |
G-VGEM | Airbus | A330-343 | Diamond Girl |
G-VINE | Airbus | A330-343 | Champagne Belle |
G-VRAY | Airbus | A330-343 | Miss Sunshine |
G-VNYC | Airbus | A330-343 | Uptown Girl |
G-VGBR | Airbus | A330-343 | Golden Girl |
G-VWAG | Airbus | A330-343 | Miss England |
G-VUFO | Airbus | A330-343 | Lady Stardust |
G-VBIG | Boeing | B747-4Q8 | Tinker Belle |
G-VAST | Boeing | B747-41R | Ladybird |
G-VXLG | Boeing | B747-41R | Ruby Tuesday |
G-VROS | Boeing | B747-443 | Forever Young |
G-VGAL | Boeing | B747-443 | Jersey Girl |
G-VLIP | Boeing | B747-443 | Hot Lips |
G-VROM | Boeing | B747-443 | Barberella |
G-VROY | Boeing | B747-443 | Pretty Woman |
G-VNEW | Boeing | B787-9 | Birthday Girl |
G-VAHH | Boeing | B787-9 | Dream Girl |
G-VOOH | Boeing | B787-9 | Miss Chief |
G-VZIG | Boeing | B787-9 | Dream Jeannie |
G-VYUM | Boeing | B787-9 | Ruby Murray |
G-VWHO | Boeing | B787-9 | Mystery Girl |
G-VCRU | Boeing | B787-9 | Olivia-Rae |
G-VSPY | Boeing | B787-9 | Miss Moneypenny |
G-VOWS | Boeing | B787-9 | Maid Marian |
G-VDIA | Boeing | B787-9 | Lucy in the Sky |
G-VBZZ | Boeing | B787-9 | Queen Bee |
G-VMAP | Boeing | B787-9 | West End Girl |
G-VFAN | Boeing | B787-9 | Pin Up Girl |
G-VBOW | Boeing | B787-9 | Pearly Queen |
G-VBEL | Boeing | B787-9 | Lady Freedom |
G-VNYL | Boeing | B787-9 | Penny Lane |
G-VWND | Airbus | A330-223 | Scarlett O’Hara |
G-VWOO | Boeing | B787-9 | Leading Lady |
G-VMNK | Airbus | A330-223 | Daydream Believer |
G-VMIK | Airbus | A330-223 | Honkytonk Woman |
G-VNAP | Airbus | A340-642 | Sleeping Beauty Rejuvenated |
G-VLNM | Airbus | A330-223 | Strawberry Fields |
G-VLUX | Airbus | A350-1041 | Red Velvet |
G-VPOP | Airbus | A350-1041 | Mamma Mia |
G-VPRD | Airbus | A350-1041 | Rain Bow |
G-VJAM | Airbus | A350-1041 | Queen of Hearts |
Decommissioned | |||
G-VAEL | Airbus | A340-300 | Maiden Toulouse |
G-VBUS | Airbus | A340-300 | Lady in Red |
G-VFLY | Airbus | A340-300 | Dragon Lady |
G-VHOL | Airbus | A340-300 | Jetstreamer |
G-VSEA | Airbus | A340-300 | Plane Sailing |
G-VSKY | Airbus | A340-300 | China Girl |
G-VAIR | Airbus | A340-300 | Maiden Tokyo |
G-VELD | Airbus | A340-300 | African Queen |
G-VFAR | Airbus | A340-300 | Molly |
G-VSUN | Airbus | A340-300 | Rainbow Lady |
G-VATL | Airbus | A340-600 | Miss Kitty |
G-VBLU | Airbus | A340-600 | Soul Sister |
G-VBUG | Airbus | A340-600 | Lady Bird |
G-VEIL | Airbus | A340-600 | Queen of the Skies |
G-VFIZ | Airbus | A340-600 | Bubbles |
G-VFOX | Airbus | A340-600 | Silver Lady |
G-VGAS | Airbus | A340-600 | Varga Girl |
G-VGOA | Airbus | A340-600 | Indian Princess |
G-VMEG | Airbus | A340-600 | Mystic Maiden |
G-VOGE | Airbus | A340-600 | Cover Girl |
G-VSHY | Airbus | A340-600 | Madame Butterfly |
G-VSSH | Airbus | A340-600 | Sweet Dreamer |
G-VWKD | Airbus | A340-600 | Miss Behavin |
G-VMIA | Boeing | 747-100 | Spirit of Sir Freddie |
G-TKYO | Boeing | 747-200 | Maiden Japan |
G-VCAT | Boeing | 747-200 | Wild Thing |
G-VBEE | Boeing | 747-200 | Honeypie |
G-VGIN | Boeing | 747-200 | Scarlet Lady |
G-VIBE | Boeing | 747-200 | Spirit of New York |
G-VIRG | Boeing | 747-200 | Maiden Voyager |
G-VJFK | Boeing | 747-200 | Boston Belle |
G-VLAX | Boeing | 747-200 | California Girl |
G-VOYG | Boeing | 747-200 | Shady Lady |
G-VPUF | Boeing | 747-200 | High as a Kite |
G-VRGN | Boeing | 747-200 | Maiden of Honour |
G-VRUM | Boeing | 747-200 | Calypso Queen |
G-VSSS | Boeing | 747-200 | Island Lady |
G-VZZZ | Boeing | 747-200 | Morning Glory |
G-VFAB | Boeing | 747-400 | Lady Peneope |
G-VHOT | Boeing | 747-400 | Tubular Belle |
G-VROC | Boeing | 747-400 | Mustand Sally |
G-VTOP | Boeing | 747-400 | Virginia Plain |
G-VWOW | Boeing | 747-400 | Cosmic Girl |