Virgin Atlantic has always stood out for its style, service and spirit. To elevate that experience even further, the airline took flight on a new phase of digital transformation grounded in real-time personalisation and a deeper understanding of its travellers.

Built on a long-standing relationship with Adobe, this next chapter was made possible through a hands-on partnership with Adobe Ultimate Success and Professional Services. Together, they helped Virgin Atlantic move fast, align teams and unlock measurable value across key moments in the customer journey.

Personalisation as the North Star.

Virgin Atlantic’s brand vision is all about delivering thoughtful experiences that feel brilliantly different.

“Personalisation sits at the heart of everything we do — it’s our North Star,” says Simon Langthorne, head of customer relationship management at Virgin Atlantic. “From the families on once-in-a-lifetime trips to frequent flyers, we need to deliver consistent, seamless experiences across every touchpoint.”

That personalisation isn’t just digital, Langthorne recalled one instance where a customer reported being cold during a flight and was surprised to find extra blankets on the return leg. “It’s simple, but powerful. It shows we’re listening and acting,” he says.

From runway to real-time: Adobe Experience Platform takes off.

With Virgin Atlantic’s official adoption of Adobe Experience Platform, they are now equipped to enable real-time, omnichannel engagement through unified data and intelligent orchestration. The team focused on delivering three tangible use cases quickly — abandon browse, ancillary upsell and next best destination.

Each initiative demonstrated the power of Adobe Experience Platform solutions working in concert to deliver real-time, data-driven personalisation at scale. Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform enables Virgin Atlantic to unify and activate customer data across channels while Adobe Journey Optimizer orchestrates timely, relevant engagement before, during, and after a trip. In addition, Adobe Target helps personalise content for travellers and offers across web and email, creating seamless, responsive journeys.

Whether re-engaging travellers who abandoned the booking flow, promoting ancillary products post purchase or inspiring future travel with next-best destination offers, these tools work together to help Virgin Atlantic drive incremental revenue, shorten booking cycles and deepen customer relationships.

“We knew that to make this successful, we had to start with achievable use cases and focus on time-to-value,” says Langthorne. “By working closely with Adobe, we adapted fast and built confidence across the business early on.”

Adobe Professional Services played a pivotal role in accelerating implementation, helping launch the first use case two months ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, the Ultimate Success team ensured the airline was organisationally ready, aligning internal teams, supporting adoption and creating a strategic roadmap for ongoing scale.

“We’ve built a strong rhythm for change across the organisation,” says Tom Nowell, senior manager, omnichannel delivery at Virgin Atlantic. “From onboarding new team members to getting everyone aligned around our future use cases, it’s helped us scale with clarity and confidence.”

This hybrid model gave Virgin Atlantic both the technical firepower to move fast and the strategic guidance to embed personalisation at scale. The impact was immediate — their abandon browse use case launched two months ahead of schedule and generated £1.2 million in revenue within 12 weeks.

Reaching peak altitude with customer engagement.

For Nowell, the transformation was both a technical evolution and a strategic effort to align the entire business around the customer.

“With Adobe’s help, we activated our first use case in five months. That kind of speed is unheard of,” says Nowell. “From there, we’ve doubled audience volume and have seen triple the engagement with personalised content.”

He adds, “We’re turning personalisation into something tangible, offering pre-selected meals, tailored ancillaries and recommendations that feel relevant. The results are clear — a better guest experience, increased revenue and higher NPS.”

For instance, their pre-order, pre-select meal initiative lets customers choose in-flight meals in advance. In addition to improving satisfaction, this streamlined service also reduces food waste — a win for sustainability and operations alike.

Clear skies for collaboration.

Virgin Atlantic’s partnership with Adobe is more than a vendor relationship — it’s a tightly knit collaboration.

“We’ve built a mutual action plan,” says Joanne Shearer, customer success manager at Adobe. “We work side by side every week, which helps us move fast and stay aligned on everything from product strategy to campaign performance.”

Shearer also praised Virgin Atlantic’s internal engagement strategy, saying “They celebrate small wins, talk about them openly and create a sense of FOMO within the business. That’s what drives adoption. Everyone wants to be part of the success.”

Organisational readiness has been a major focus, with over 15 Success Accelerator engagements delivered to support change management, technical training and campaign optimisation.

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Charting new routes for growth.

Virgin Atlantic’s transformation is generating value while setting a new standard for innovation.

“We’ve already seen six or seven use cases launched and they’re aiming for 30+ this year across email, mobile, contact centre and social,” says Rachel Brennan, director of Professional Services at Adobe “They’re even planning their own mobile app to act as a digital concierge.”

The mobile app will give Virgin Atlantic the ability to drive in-app personalisation, loyalty engagement and push notifications tailored to the guest’s journey. “It’s all about giving the customer more control, clarity and comfort,” says Shearer.

Nowell sums up the mindset: “We measure success through ROI, NPS and customer sentiment. But ultimately, it's about better journeys. Adobe helps us move fast, test constantly and deliver value.”

Wheels down and eyes forward.

With Ultimate Success and Professional Services by their side, Virgin Atlantic is boldly stepping into the future. “Our ambition is to get to daily personalisation, powered by AI,” says Langthorne. “It’s about more than technology — it’s about creating magical, human moments at scale.”

The roadmap includes a projected £14 million in attributable revenue through Adobe Experience Platform and continued investment in multilingual campaigns, new route launches and loyalty innovations. As Virgin Atlantic grows globally, its focus remains the same — serve each guest with empathy, intelligence and care.

“Adobe gave us the partnership, expertise and momentum we needed to make transformation real,” says Langthorne. “With Adobe Professional Services guiding our implementation and Ultimate Success championing our long-term strategy, we’ve moved faster, delivered more and built a foundation for personalisation that’s both scalable and sustainable.”

Your goals, our expertise. Just as Adobe helped Virgin Atlantic accelerate transformation and deliver personalisation at scale, Adobe Success Plans can equip your teams with the strategic guidance, technical expertise and training to turn customer vision into measurable business impact. Discover Adobe Success Plans.

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