AERO

Virgin Atlantic has launched a revolutionary new inflight entertainment system with Panasonic, which takes to the skies today on the inaugural flight of the airline’s new Airbus A330-300 aircraft. There are many firsts in this cutting edge technology. It offers the easiest and most intuitive touch screen system in the air and the first touch screen handset, which allows you to follow the map on handset and watch a movie on the main screen. The easy and intuitive nature of the system is inspired by the best of modern applications and websites. Passengers can swipe across screens, scroll through text and instantly jump around the system, with a touch of a fingertip, using the sharpest graphics and full scale screen animations.

Dee Cooper, Director of Product and Service for Virgin Atlantic, commented:
“Virgin Atlantic has always led the industry in inflight entertainment and technology � we were the first airline to provide all passengers with seat back television screens nearly twenty years ago and have since then been the first British airline to introduce texting and emailing facilities onboard.

“The new system Jam is simple and fun to use and is more like a tablet touchscreen entertainment screen. With over 300 hours of movies, award winning TV shows, music and games we are sure holidaymakers flying from Manchester today will love having this cutting edge technology at their fingertips.”

The new system will be installed on all ten of Virgin Atlantic’s Airbus A330 aircraft which will be delivered over the next two years. Later this year 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.

Features on the new inflight entertainment system include:

Content rating
A world first for inflight entertainment – this allows passengers to “rate” movies, music and other features with a simple thumbs up/down option. For the first time passengers can provide real feedback on what they like and don’t like, which will allow Virgin Atlantic to tailor its entertainment to better suit their needs. Results are shown onboard so passengers can see what other people have rated to help them make their own choices.

Save For Later
Passengers can browse through our menus just once and “bookmark” all the movies, TV shows, CDs and Games they are interested in and put them in one place � the “Saved” area. So during the flight they can refer to their personal list putting them in charge of their own entertainment for the flight.

The Travel Tip Catcher
An extension of Virgin Atlantic’s award-winning vtravelled website. Travellers can browse through tips and suggestions from fellow passengers on all Virgin Atlantic’s destinations and while the information is fresh in their mind can help fellow travellers by leaving their own tips. Tips can be sorted by genre as well as destination.

Live News from Sky
This brings the latest web news stories from around the world to the passenger’s seat in full, as they would browse them on the ground. In addition to this, Sky News Radio and Sky Sports Radio bulletins are available on the hour.

Stay in Control
In Premium Economy, the airline is the first to introduce a unique touch screen remote control handset, which gives passengers a full touch screen menu in the palm of their hand. Easy and intuitive to use, passengers can use it to do two things at once, such as follow the moving map system without having to stop the movie they are watching on their main screen.

Left to your own devices
Premium Economy passengers can plug in a variety of their own mobile devices to play music, videos, pictures and documents on the seat-back screen. Passengers in all classes will be able to plug a USB in to view their own content. Destination videos and an interactive map are also available amongst many other features.

Easy Use
Three clicks away from viewing the content, it’s the most intuitive system from start up to play. Virgin Atlantic worked with London based Airside and Massive in Sydney to ensure this technology could be used by anyone from ‘phobic to in tune. The system offers quick access to your content from any point, through easy and simple drop down menus, all delivered in a modern Virgin Atlantic way.