Virgin Atlantic’s new $2.2bn fleet of planes took to the skies heading for Orlando with one of the first Airbus A330 aircrafts from Manchester last year.  These new A330 aircraft will be rolled out over the next two years enabling Virgin to take more passengers to key markets including US East Coast, East and West Africa, the Middle East and India.  Great news for families heading to Disney World to stay in one our Florida vacation rentals!

The maiden A330 aircraft, named ‘Beauty Queen’ was Virgin Atlantic’s first long range twin engined aircraft and is the most efficient aircraft in its class today.   With UK Manufactured Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines, the planes will use 15% less fuel per seat than the airline’s A340-300 aircraft, delivering Virgin Atlantic’s commitment to flying a lower carbon fleet.

Virgin Atlantic’s A330 aircraft will no longer offer an Upper Class service, making more space on board for 59 Premium Economy seats and 255 Economy seats.  The remaining A330-300 aircraft will still offer the Upper Class service.

Virgin Atlantic’s A330 aircraft features a revolutionary new entertainment system by Panasonic.  The system uses the latest touch screen technology allowing passengers to scroll and swipe through over 300 hours of content, quickly and easily. Virgin Atlantic travellers flying on the A330 will be able to send and receive emails and texts on their Blackberries, handheld PDAs and other mobile devices.

Exciting news for those not travelling on the A330s;  Virgin Atlantic is spending more than £50 million pounds to refit 7 of it’s Gatwick based Boeing 747’s, the work started this month (April 2012) and will be finished in October with a team of 125 staff working over 95,000 hours to complete the job. Once completed these will be used on the Orlando route and will feature a new inflight entertainment system and new seats in economy and premium economy.

Virgin Atlantic Flight Tracker App now available from iTunes

Download Virgin Atlantic’s Flight tracker from iTunes

• Florida Travel News