The G-VAST "Ladybird" Story

In 2010, the airline overhauled its entire corporate design and our aircraft was also given a makeover: The name of the airline, which used to grace the front of the fuselage, now being traced in a new font along the fuselage, where our fantastic purple Aviationtags also come from. What’s more, the new logo was applied to the underside of the fuselage so that it is also visible from below during take-off and landing. In the same year, the painting process was revamped and simplified to use fewer materials, the aircraft only needing to be repainted every ten years.

Up until June 2012, our Boeing 747 was able to carry 386 passengers (business 48, premium economy 32, economy 306) to their destination. Thanks to a reconfiguration and a scaled back business class, the "Ladybird" gained 69 new seats and was then able to accommodate 455 passengers - divided into 14 seats in business class, 66 in premium economy class and 375 in economy class.

In March 2020, at the first peak of the corona crisis, it was retired and first parked at London Gatwick and later Manchester. On 15 July 2020, the Ladybird made a final short 30-minute hop from Manchester to St. Athan in Wales, where it was subsequently recycled and ultimately upcycled into our Ladybird Aviationtag series.

Our Ladybird is not the first Boeing 747 aircraft to leave the Virgin Atlantic fleet by the way. Since early June 2020, Jersey Girl (G-VGAL), The Falcon in "Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge" livery (G-VLIP) and Pretty Woman (G-VROY) have already been transferred to Ciudad Real Central Airport (CQM) in Spain. Virgin Atlantic announced plans to decommission its entire fleet of Boeing 747s in early May 2020. Three more commercial aircraft have been at Manchester since 15 July 2020: Ruby Tuesday (G-VXLG), Forever Young (G-VROS) and Barbarella (G-VROM).