Virgin Atlantic Airways, The First Airline To Offer Personal Inflight Entertainment, Premieres As Partner Airline Of Telluride Film Festival

Exclusive “Two to Telluride: The Virgin Atlantic Film Festival Giveaway” Sweepstakes Offers Movie Fans the Chance to Attend the Festival

SOUTH NORWALK, Conn., July 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Virgin Atlantic Airways is the partner airline of this year’s Telluride Film Festival taking place in Telluride, Colorado from September 2 – 5, 2011. This is the first year that Virgin Atlantic has participated in the festival, which was founded in 1974 by Tom Luddy, James Card, and Bill & Stella Pence. As part of this year’s festival, Virgin Atlantic will host one of the much anticipated tributes, which honors a distinguished artist. Past recipients have included Colin Firth, Viggo Mortensen, Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, among others.

“Virgin Atlantic is proud to support the Telluride Film Festival and its ongoing dedication to the film industry,” said Chris Rossi, Senior Vice President, North America, Virgin Atlantic. “The festival is a perfect fit for Virgin Atlantic as our in-flight entertainment offerings are an integral part of our passenger’s onboard experience. We look to Telluride and similar global film festivals to inspire our content.”

To celebrate Virgin Atlantic’s support of the festival and the film industry, the airline will offer movie fans two chances to attend this year’s event as a guest of the airline via an exclusive Two to Telluride Giveaway on Facebook from July 21 to August 7. Winners will receive two exclusive Patron Passes, round trip airfare from anywhere within the 48 contiguous United States to and from the Festival, and hotel accommodation for the duration of the festival. Individuals 18 and older can enter by first “liking” the Virgin Atlantic Facebook page at www.facebook.com/virginatlantic, then filling out an online entry form. Entrants can increase their chances to win by inviting friends to enter in the draw.

Virgin Atlantic has always stood at the forefront of the industry, putting state-of-the-art technology at passengers’ fingertips to make traveling a memorable experience. In 1989, the airline revolutionized the onboard entertainment experience as the first airline to offer individual TVs to their Upper Class passengers and followed by the 1991 debut of personal screens with six channels in all classes of service.

As technology advances so has Virgin Atlantic’s in-flight entertainment offerings, which now features 10.5″ personal screens offering 300 hours of on-demand audio and video, including more than 100 hours of television, 150 full-length CDs, 20 video games, an assortment of audio books and 60 movies.

The programming, which is carefully curated by a full time in-house acquisitions team, is comprised of current Hollywood blockbusters as well as “independent” style films to satiate any movie lover’s tastes. In addition, the team highlights a list of their favorite films as part of the “Virgin Loves” program.

Earlier this year Virgin Atlantic launched Jam, a new touchscreen in-flight entertainment system to be installed on all 10 of the airline’s Airbus A330 aircraft. Passengers can swipe across screens, scroll through text and instantly jump around the easy-to-use system, with a touch of a fingertip, using the sharpest graphics and full screen animations.
“Virgin Atlantic is a terrific partner and great supporter of the Telluride Film Festival,” said Julie Huntsinger, Festival Co-director. “It is important for the Festival to work with brands that share our passion for film and entertainment, comfort, style and fun, which Virgin Atlantic demonstrates on all of its flights.”

For additional information on Virgin Atlantic Airways, visit www.virgin-atlantic.com and for details on the 2011 Telluride Film Festival, visit www.telluridefilmfestival.org/