Passengers flying on Virgin Atlantic’s Airbus A330s can expect more comfortable cabins after the airline announces a cabin retrofit.
Many travelers had complained that the Dream Suite installed on the A330s felt cramped. The Dream Suite configuration had allowed the airline to add three additional seats, which, when Upper Class was fully booked, increased revenue—but several customers found the layout too tight for long-haul flying.
Although the A330 shares the same cabin width as Virgin’s A340s, the carrier originally chose a 1-2-1 layout rather than the more spacious 1-1-1 configuration used on the A340s and Boeing 787s. That decision left some passengers and crew describing the A330 seating as awkward and less comfortable than other aircraft on the fleet that operate key long-haul routes.
“The Dream Suite on the A330 was a fiasco,” said a former Virgin Atlantic employee. “The retrofit brings the A330 product in line with the rest of the Virgin fleet.”
Virgin Atlantic plans to retrofit its A330s over the coming months, replacing the Dream Suites with an updated version of its earlier 2003 business-class product—one of the first fully flat business-class beds to offer direct aisle access. The airline will phase the refit fleetwide: some A330s will receive the new seats sooner while others will be refitted later.
The carrier aims to complete the conversion of all ten A330s ahead of the 2017 summer flying program, with changes taking effect March 26. The update is intended to improve passenger comfort and align the A330 experience with the rest of Virgin Atlantic’s long-haul cabin products.