Dinner, Champagne and Tour tomorrow the retirement party ... of Virgin Atlantic's Boeing 747

Virgin Atlantic is ready to say goodbye to its Boeing 747 fleet, sending it into retirement. To mark the occasion, it held a party with dinner, champagne and a final tour of the plane at its HUB at Heathrow.

The tour includes some areas that are not normally open to the public, for example, the crew staging areas and the cargo hold below the passenger deck. As well as a champagne reception complete with champagne on the upper deck of the 747 and a 3-course meal served in Virgin's Upper Class.

The event will be held on December 12, and different time slots will be available to allow everyone to participate safely.

What is included and how much does it cost?

Tickets literally sold out on Virgin's official website and cost £50, all in all a fair price for a three-course dinner with champagne and a tour!

Only 50 tickets were available and included:

• Champagne reception on the upper deck of the 747
• 3-course a la carte meal in the Upper Class
• Full tour of the aircraft, including cockpit, cargo hold and staging areas
• A chat with Virgin Atlantic pilots, crew and engineers, including Yvonne Kershaw, the first woman pilot of the Boeing 747
• Souvenir photo sitting on top of the Boeing jet engine (which will be kept off for the occasion...).

Visits will last a total of 3 hours, and all anti-counterfeiting security measures will be observed.

What other airlines have said goodbye to the Boeing 747?

"It has defeated the tyranny of distance, which was and in part continues to be a handicap for Australians," is how Alan Joyce, CEO of Quantas, the Australian company that most loved and used the Jumbo Jet, for years the world's largest aircraft.

Virgin was not the only company to say. farewell to the giant of the sky, the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly accelerated the process of dismantling the various fleets scattered around the world, British Airwais also decided to make us a museum!

The time had also come for KLM to say goodbye to the last two queens of the skies in its fleet; since the outbreak of the pandemic, the two aircraft have been reinvented as cargo planes, taking advantage of both cargo holds and space on board.

Any survivors?

Yes! The airline Lufthansa was the only airline that did not discontinue its use of this model during the pandemic and also launched some new features.

In fact, a new initiative has started on an experimental basis that allows people to reserve an entire row of the Boeing 747 and turn it into a bed!

Do you want to know more? We talked about it here!

• B747