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Flamboyant Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson is into corporate social responsibility these days and the airline he founded, Virgin Atlantic, is following the same path, farewelling its traditional Flying Lady logo in favour of five new gender-and-racially-diverse “Flying Icons” to adorn its new A350-1000 fleet.

The Flying Lady was a Virgin Atlantic institution – but times have changed. The new high flyers are a diverse range of men and women “representing modern Britain”, rolled out on four new A350-1000 aircraft this year, followed by a further eight by 2021.

Virgin Atlantic says its use of the Flying Lady was inspired by figureheads that have decorated ships since the 16th century. The artwork for it was based on the pin-up girls made famous by Alberto Vargas.

This move represents the changing face of one of Britain’s best-known brands. Virgin Atlantic has made a pledge to tackle its gender pay gap and increase diversity and inclusion across the business, and this is mirrored in the look and feel of the brand.

The airline is aiming to have a 50:50 gender balance in leadership roles, as well as at least 12% black, Asian and minority ethnic group representation across the company, by 2022.

The airline was a founding member of Women in Aviation and Aerospace in 2018 as well as a signatory of the Women in Hospitality, Travel and Leisure charter. Virgin Atlantic has also ensured greater diversity with their engineering apprenticeship and pilot cadet schemes and has developed a Springboard Network which aims to help women in junior roles develop clear career pathways to become senior leaders.

With its latest brand campaign, Virgin Atlantic became the first company to show a same sex couple in its ad imagery in India. It will also be the first airline to have male figureheads on its aircraft.

In a further move to increase equality, the airline recently announced it has changed its uniform and styling policy so that women could choose whether they would like trousers or a skirt and removed requirements to wear makeup.

“The saying goes ‘You can’t be what you can’t see’ and that has never been truer than the aviation industry’s glamorous image in the past,” commented Nikki Humphrey, whose title is “senior vice president of people” at Virgin Atlantic.

“We have been working for a number of years to tackle our gender pay gap, create an inclusive workplace and increase the diversity of our workforce, through the development of our Springboard scheme for women, as well as the launch of engineering apprenticeships.

Above: Back in the old days, Richard Branson and friends splash in the surf to promote Virgin Atlantic

“By introducing our new Flying Icons I hope it encourages people from all backgrounds to feel at home flying with us, but also working with us.”

Below: The airline’s original Flying Lady motif

Branson founded Virgin Atlantic 34 years ago. Delta Air Lines bought Singapore Airlines’ 49% stake in 2012. More recently, on 15 May 2018, Air France-KLM, Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Limited agreed to combine the existing trans-Atlantic joint ventures.  This transaction is in the process of regulatory clearance.

Edited by Peter Needham