Virgin Atlantic – The child friendly airline

To help passengers travelling with children this summer, Virgin Atlantic has come up with some top tips so that families have a stress-free and enjoyable start to their holiday.

Dee Cooper, Director of Product and Service for Virgin Atlantic, said: “In the last year alone the airline has carried over half a million children and infants and we pride ourselves in looking after and providing for all of our passengers whether they are toddlers, parents or a pensioners. We always pay close attention to the safety, comfort and entertainment needs of families travelling, providing many entertaining features for our younger travellers to help them pass the time.”

BOOKING

1) Passengers can easily make their booking online at virginatlantic.com and then choose where they would like to sit onboard and make any special meal requests.

2) US Government regulation means that all passengers travelling to the US need to complete the Advanced Passenger Information (API) before checking in for their flight. We recommend passengers do this while checking in online saving time for the whole family when they arrive at the airport.

CHECK-IN

1) Families checking in at Gatwick Airport can really benefit from using the Twilight Check In service, which enables them to check in themselves and their luggage the afternoon before their flight departs, making the day they travel completely hassle-free.

2) In the Caribbean, 'Check In and Chill Out' is popular with passengers allowing them to check in for their flight when checking out of their hotel rather than at the airport – giving the kids more time in the pool!

3) In Florida, Virgin Atlantic offers a check in facility in Downtown Disney enabling passengers to check themselves and their bags in at a kiosk on the day of departure so they can spend the last day of their holiday in the theme park, without having to rush back to the hotel.

ONBOARD

1) The airline offers special children’s meals – plain food designed especially to appeal to children, including a main meal, Dairylea dunkers, a gingerbread man biscuit, a selection of fruit, Haribo sweets and a yoghurt Frube stick. Passengers can book these when booking their flights to ensure a meal is a reserved for them on the day of departure.

2) All children are given Kids packs to keep them entertained on the flights which contain a watch, reading book, baseball cap, pencil, magazine and sweets. On selected leisure flights, in addition to the kids packs provided, cabin crew also hand out playing cards and other items to amuse the children.

3) Virgin Atlantic’s award winning in-flight entertainment gives children a superb selection of the latest movies as well as their own dedicated TV channels. Parental blocking is available on selected systems; passengers just need to ask for a member of cabin crew at the start of the flight to block their child's seat number to make sure they only view the child-friendly entertainment.

4) This summer holiday there are some great family films onboard which include, ‘Kung Fu Panda’ - onboard only one month after its cinema release, ‘Nim's Island, ’‘Horton Hears A Who! ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ and ‘Spiderwick Chronicles’.

5) There are a number of TV programmes available for the younger travellers which include episodes of: In the Night Garden, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Shaun The Sheep, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Wonderpets.

6) Children can play a wide range of video games on selected systems, choices include: Backgammon, Blackjack, Cave Crunch, Hangman, Head-to-Head chess, Solitaire, Trivia Challenge and Battlemail Kung-Fu.

TRAVELLING WITH BABIES

1) To help those passengers who are travelling with babies the airline offers baby changing facilities on all aircraft and provides sky cots for infants under one year old for the baby to sleep in during the flight. Passengers can reserve a sky cot when they book their flight.

2) The airline offers infant care chairs, (a child safety seat specifically designed for airline use) pioneered by Virgin Atlantic for children aged six months up to around three years.

3) Complimentary nappies, bottles and baby food are readily available in all classes.