Virgin America Stands Proud With LGBT Community As Official Airline Of San Francisco Pride
Daniel Franzese, Actor and HIV Activist, Helps Virgin America Teammates Celebrate at the Nation's Largest LGBT Event
SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Virgin America, San Francisco's hometown airline, is proud to support the LGBT community and serve as the "Official Airline of San Francisco Pride" for the ninth consecutive year. HIV Activist and "Mean Girls" and "Looking" actor Daniel Franzese will join more than 500 Virgin America teammates, friends and family at the 46th Annual San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade. Since its launch, Virgin America has remained committed to LGBT equality and consistently receives top scores in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index, which benchmarks America's leading workplaces on their policies and practices related to LGBT employees. Virgin America also supports Bay Area non-profit LGBT organizations through San Francisco Pride's Community Partners program.
During Pride month this June, Virgin America updated its social media avatars in support of the LGBT community. The airline is also featuring a Spotify Pride Playlist to help parade participants celebrate the festivities and will be sharing the pride experience online with the hashtag #VXPride – and invites flyers from all over the country to do the same. With fleetwide in-flight WiFi, signature moodlighting, power outlets at every seat and the Red® in-flight entertainment system with a seat-to-seat delivery and chat system that allows guests to connect with others at 35,000 feet, LGBT travelers can fly with pride on the "Official Airline of San Francisco Pride."
"As an airline that encourages diversity and inclusion, celebrates differences and has a long-standing commitment to equality, we're looking forward to coming together and supporting the LGBT community at this world-class event," said Frances Fiorillo, SVP of People and In-flight Service at Virgin America. "This year's San Francisco Pride Parade carries special meaning, given the recent tragic event in Orlando. As San Francisco's hometown airline, we're proud to stand in solidarity and share a message of love, equality and respect for everyone."
In a letter to teammates last week, Virgin America announced a donation of $10,000 to support victims of the Pulse Orlando shooting through Equality Florida, National Center for Victims of Crime and the National Compassion Fund.
"Having long-standing partners like Virgin America show their support for the LGBT community and march with thousands of other San Franciscans is vitally important to our mission of fighting for justice and equality for all," said George Ridgely, Executive Director of San Francisco Pride. "As the 'Official Airline of San Francisco Pride,' Virgin America provides an unparalleled flying experience for attendees from across the country and is vital in helping us continue to be a leader in the movement and produce one of the largest pride events in the world."
In addition to a Main Cabin that offers custom-designed leather seating with a deeper, more comfortable pitch, Virgin America's First Class cabin offers plush white leather 'cradle sleeper' seating with 55 inches of pitch, 165 degrees of recline and lumbar massagers. The carrier's Main Cabin Select service offers 38 inches of pitch, free food and cocktails, an all-access pass to media content, dedicated overhead bins and priority check-in/boarding. The Red in-flight entertainment platform offers guests their own seatback touch-screen TV, with more than 25 films, live TV, interactive Google Maps, videogames, a 3,000 song library and an on-demand menu, which allows flyers to order a cocktail or snack from their seatback any time during a flight. Red also includes an "open tab" feature that allows guests to swipe their card only once and keep their tab open for continuous ordering during the flight.
Photos of Virgin America's unique aircraft and broadcast quality b-roll are available here.
About Virgin America: Known for its mood-lit cabins, three beautifully designed classes of service and innovative fleetwide amenities — like touch-screen personal entertainment, WiFi and power outlets at every seat, Virgin America has built a loyal following of flyers and earned a host of awards since launching in 2007 — including being named both the "Best U.S. Airline" in Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards and "Best Domestic Airline" in Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards for the past eight consecutive years. For more: www.virginamerica.com
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SOURCE Virgin America
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