New travel kits for Virgin Atlantic passengers
- By Jack Preston -
- Sep 12, 2012
Virgin Atlantic have revealed their new-look sustainable amenity kits, following six months of design and research, with an emphasis on comfort and sustainability.
The new Upper Class cabin amenity kit is made from ‘rPET’ - a sustainable material made from crushed plastic bottles. The fabric is dark grey with a black cherry silk lining – and to continue the recycled theme – doubles up as a soft tablet or e-reader case to use when travelling. On inbound flights, the kit takes the form of a travel wallet.
Essentials in the Upper Class kit include; cosy socks, luxurious eyeshades, toothbrush and paste, tissues, ear plugs and a pen. While the Premium Economy kit, also made from rPET* is dark grey but has a sleek silver silk lining, containing stylish purple socks, a purple eye mask, a quirky designer toothbrush and paste, a pen and earplugs.
What is rPET? Recycled polyethylene terephthalate is made from plastic (PET) bottles. The bottles are sterilised clean, dried and crushed into small chips. These chips are heated until they can be wound up like yarn thread. The fibres are drawn into smooth strings and then go through a crimping machine which will give the polyester yarns a fluffy woolly texture.
Last but not least, the Economy amenity kit has a special surprise – revamped eyeshades featuring six different sunglasses designs. Passengers will be able to collect a different set each time they fly and wear their special version of Kanye West’s Shutter Shades or Rayban’s Wayfarers whilst they sleep.
“Our new kits have been designed with a reusable factor in mind and we are hoping to see them being carried around by passengers once they reach their destination. So many of our customers travel with tablet computers these days so we wanted to take note of this and offer a solution for transporting them on board and back at home,” explained Paul Sands, Head of Customer Experience Management for Virgin Atlantic.
If you’d like to experience the new kits for yourself, then head over to Virgin Atlantic and book yourself a flight.
By Jack Preston. Content Executive. Tweets at @JackPressedOn
