Virgin Atlantic - Air-prentice

Virgin Atlantic - Air-prentice

Virgin Atlantic ‘Air-prentice’ | Over the last year, Virgin Atlantic announced a major investment in product and service upgrades valued at GBP100 million . One of the major projects has been a full refurbishing of the airline's ageing 747 fleet. To commemorate the occasion, Virgin Atlantic launched a competition entitled “Air-Prentice” (modeled after Donald Trump's 'The Apprentice') to search for a “junior approvals associate” to testdrive the new inflight product.

The competition, inspired by Richard Branson's own passion for flying, brought in 600 applicants, of whom 10 year-old Billy Yeomans was chosen to spend a day on board a newly-refurbished Virgin Atlantic 747 that departed from London Gatwick Airport. From the experience, Billy had to create a full report on the food, in-flight entertainment system, cabin crew and redesigned seats and hand it to Branson for a “review.” A video of Billy's experience was posted on Virgin Atlantic's YouTube channel, where it garnered over 5000 unique views.

Billy was also given the task of being an advisor to Branson on “any future developments to Virgin Atlantic's aircraft that are focused on children.” For an airline with a reputation as flashy as Virgin, the 'Air-prentice' exercise can be seen as an interesting way to frame and align the brand with the family-travel market. The competition also creates an avenue to promote product upgrades.