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Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Name 'em. Fly 'em. 

Virgin Atlantic has a fab way of naming its airliners, none better than Tubular Belle, to recognize Branson's and Virgin's indebtedness to Mike Oldfield's record, which kept Virgin afloat for years. Now that Virgin America has been given permission to operate, they have opened the naming of VA's planes to the public. Fittingly enough, they offered the first name to Grace Slick and sure enough, Virgin America's first plane will be called "Jefferson Airplane", which is appropriate on so many levels.

In the meanwhile, I flew Virgin Upper Class from Nairobi to New York and I cannot recommend it enough (a masseuse and a bar on board..what more could you ask for). I would choose it over BA anyday. However, I also do think Jet Airways is on the verge of rewriting the rules on upper class flying once it opens up its New York service (advertised in a full-page colour ad in the NYT day before yesterday).

Anyway, good luck with trying to name a virgin or two. Seriously.