Hi,
After reading the original post, I emailed Virgin and got the following reply after 10 days and one follow up email.
Reg,
Thank you for your E-Mail. Please accept my apologies for the delayed
response. I'm sorry you've not previously received a reply from us.
Following 11 September, the airline has had to review all of its operations to meet radically changed circumstances.
While other routes have been suspended, Manchester to Orlando has been retained but this can only be retained this year by wet
leasing an aircraft due to changes in the Virgin Atlantic fleet.
Virgin Atlantic will wet-lease a Boeing 747-200 aircraft from Air Atlanta
from 01 May 2002 until 10 November 2002. The aircraft will be staffed by
Virgin trained crew and with full Virgin livery and in-flight
entertainment. The aircraft scheduled to be wet leased was manufactured in
1981. However, this is subject to any operational changes which may result
in a different aircraft being wet leased.
Passengers should not be affected by this change. The aircraft we are
using in Manchester was part of our own fleet until a very short time ago.
Therefore, it retains its full Virgin style. We leased the aircraft to Air
Atlanta in order to reduce the types of aircraft we owned and subsequently
needed to provide our own engineering support for. The aircraft type
compliments Air Atlanta's extensive fleet and engineering facilities.
The aircraft will maintain the following:
· Full Virgin Atlantic livery
· Full Virgin Atlantic products, catering and amenities on board
· Seatback IFE Matsu****a 2000E "Odyssey" IFE system.
· Virgin trained and uniformed crew
The only noticeable difference will be the Icelandic registration of the
aircraft.
The flight deck crew will be on lease to us by Air Atlanta. The cabin crew will be leased to us by Air Atlanta and will have been
trained to provide our usual high standard of on-board service. The cabin crew are uniformed in Virgin Atlantic clothing.
I hope I have been able to address your concerns and may I take this
opportunity to wish you a pleasant flight.
Kind regards,
Mark
Customer Services
I'm not sure if it does address my concerns, but I can't see I can do much about it. If anyone flies before me from Manchester, 1st June, perhaps they can fill me in with the gory details, or otherwise.
Hope this helps you jdworthy and Kazzie.
Reg