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By Alex, January 10, 2012 4:50 pm

Virgin Money have launched a fantastic new advert on national television entitled ’40 Years of Better’ following the acquisition of Northern Rock and we’re over the moon to say a Virgin hot air balloon plays a starring role!

The beautifully-created commercial, which marks the start of Virgin Money’s ‘quest to make banking better’, celebrates the rich history of the brand, particularly in transport. We feature alongside Virgin Records, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains and, after helping out with the hot air ballooning part of the ad, we were excited to see how it turned out. We certainly weren’t disappointed and you can see for yourself on YouTube here or via the Virgin Money banner on the Virgin.com homepage or look out for it on prime time TV.

40 Years of Better - TV Ad Launches Virgin Money

On Monday, we exhibited at the lovely Virgin Money offices in Newcastle, formerly Northern Rock’s HQ, where Sir Richard Branson hosted a launch event for the 2,000 staff. Donning a  football shirt of Newcastle United, now sponsored by Virgin Money, Sir Richard gave a speech welcoming everyone to Virgin and said the combination of Northern Rock and Virgin’s experience plus the Virgin brand meant the bank had an exciting future.

Newcastle United players, including Shola Ameobi and Steven Taylor, also made an appearance at the event to speak to fans and sign autographs.

At the Virgin Balloon Flights stand the balloon challenge computer game proved popular and Paul Kavanagh from Virgin Money Mortgage Processing team won the grand prize of a champagne balloon flight for two with an unbeatable score.

We also told staff about our nearest launch site for balloon rides in the North East at Witton Castle, Bishop Auckland. Flights are currently available from just £99 per person from our website. National vouchers are also on sale from £109 per person. Visit the Virgin Balloon Flights website here.

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By Alex, December 19, 2011 3:10 pm

Well, the festive season has landed and 2011 has simply flown by here at Virgin Balloon Flights. (New Year’s resolution: no more balloon puns!).

It’s been a fantastic 12 months with thousands of new airborne adventurers, fantastic personal achievements by staff and charity campaigns galore! Enjoy some of our highlights in pictures below.

January

Steve Dubois of SteveOnTheRun.co.uk,  from Virgin Media in Cambridge, visited Virgin Balloon Flights HQ for a training run with our Eve (who ran a half marathon this year for Hope Hope) and Sue as part of his preparation for the Virgin London Marathon. Entrepreneur Mark Pearson, of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk fame, told us about his unforgettable balloon flight in Surrey the previous season.

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By Eve, October 27, 2011 1:05 pm

Internet entrepreneur Jeanie and colleague Jackie were whisked high above the skies of Kent on their Wadhurst flight last month with pilot Damon Bridger.

Famous for her bright pink hairdo and savvy shopper website Mad About Bargains, Jeanie was originally scheduled to launch from the spectacular Bristol International Balloon Fiesta along with Jackie back in June after winning a competition hosted by Virgin Balloon Flights.  With gusty winds proving challenging for all pilots that day their original flight had to wait, not long though and within a matter of weeks they were experiencing what it is like to see beautiful Britain from above in a Virgin hot air balloon. We asked Jeanie what she made of her balloon ride and if geography and company were no object, where and with whom she would most like to fly:-

“It has been on my bucket list for some time and I enjoyed every minute.

I would love to do a balloon flight over somewhere really spectacular like the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls (if possible) and I think the most interesting person to do the flight with would of course be Sir Richard Branson (and I am not just saying that). I have run various businesses since I was very young and I think he is a fascinating person.

Thank you again for the fantastic prize. It is something we will both always remember.”

– Jeanie, Founder, Mad About Bargains

After landing and enjoying the traditional Champagne toast that accompanies all of our flights, Jackie said:

“We had the most amazing experience and would like to thank you and everyone at Virgin Balloons again! We loved the Champagne, the whole experience was really lovely, they made everyone feel special.” – Jackie, Mad About Bargains

To see for yourself what a ballooning experience is all about visit our brand new Experience page to see videos, experience a 360° virtual tour from the air, view our gallery, read our pilot profiles and to read some of our passenger testimonials.

To enjoy a hot air balloon ride from just £89 from Kent or any other county within the UK visit our locations page to see which launch sites are available near you.

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By Kirsty, July 20, 2011 5:53 pm

On July 18^th, Nelson Mandela celebrated his 93rd birthday! An amazing accomplishment to add to many others in this great man’s life. To honour Mandela; Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite encouraged everyone within the Virgin group to take part in Mandela Day 2011 by giving 67 minutes of their time to their local community.

Excited by the scope of what we could do, everyone at Virgin Balloon Flights HQ got to work on planning an even bigger and better celebration than 2010’s Mandela Day.

Thinking caps on, we brainstormed about all the different ways we could give back to our community and here’s what we came up with:

· We baked and sold beautiful cupcakes raising money for local community projects.

· We collected boxes and bags of jumble items including clothes, shoes, toys, books and bric-a-brac and donated to The British Red Cross, Katherine House Hospice and Compton Hospice. We even managed to get Staffordshire based designer dress agency Hush to come on board and donate old stock to our clothes box donations.

· Senior Customer Service Representative Sophie Ellis helped out family member Rachel to take her two young twin boys, who were born prematurely, to a hydrotherapy pool for the afternoon as community swimming pools are too cold for them.

· We litter picked around our office and tidied up the surrounding green spaces helping to keep the area cleaner for people to enjoy.

· We donated soft toys, music cd’s and children’s clothes to a brand new sensory room at local nursery Earlyworld.

· We collected and sent out 18 board games, a PlayStation, a box of PlayStation and computer games and two bags of educational and fictional books to a local after school club for children aged between 4 and 14 years.

· We mowed our neighbours’ lawns and helped out with gardening.

· We volunteered at local community project Sanktuary giving late night clubbers a safe place to wait for taxi’s or friends (and even gave high heel clad feet a rest with free flip-flops!)

· We gave two local students, one at GCSE level and one at A Level, the opportunity to complete a week’s work experience within the customer service and marketing departments at the company HQ.

· Accounts assistant Cheryl helped to organise and complete a day within her church community called ‘Messy Church’ where children enjoyed a fun-filled activity day playing games and eating ice lollies!

· Customer Service Representative Ryan Laing became a fully-fledged Street Pastor and completed his first night about town, helping to battle the issue of homelessness and poverty giving strength and support to those who needed it.

· Staff donated £2 each for a handmade bracelet by 11-year-old cancer sufferer Harry Moseley through his charity Help Harry Help Others – a fantastic inspiration to us all.

· We even got CEO and Chief Pilot Kenneth to help sort out our donations, don’t worry he didn’t really pack away office pooch and company mascot, Cookie the Pomeranian.

Once again all the staff here at Virgin Balloon Flights have thoroughly enjoyed their efforts for Mandela Day this year. We hope that each little bit of help or support has collectively made a positive difference within our community and we take our hats off to the people who work so hard to improve the lives of others all year round.

Here’s to another superb effort for Mandela Day!

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By Alex, April 17, 2011 6:24 pm

Hot air balloons, sun, bleary eyes, TV cameras, thousands of brilliant runners, amazing costumes, hundreds of good causes, ballooning bobbies, celebrities including Olympic legend Jonathan Edwards and a visit from the smiley man with a beard – the Virgin Balloon Flights trip to the Virgin London Marathon 2011 had it all!

See the story in pictures below…

Virgin Balloons at the London Marathon 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Phew – what a day!

Congratulations to all the runners, thanks to marathon organisers, balloon area organisers, pilots, crew and everyone who helped. We can’t wait for next year!

Check out our top five runner costumes here

If see out balloons bobbing around on TV made you fancy a hot air balloon flight in Britain, come fly with us here

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By Eve, March 25, 2010 5:58 pm

The calendar says 25th March. Panic! It is exactly one month until Marathon Day!

As Virgin Balloon Flights’ marathon representation I’ll be running the Shakespeare Marathon (Stratford upon Avon) in aid of Macmillan on 25th April 2010.

Our lovely call-centre staff have been mildly amused seeing me jog off enveloped in Lycra© for my lunch-time 5 milers, which luckily seem to be paying off as I survived my first half marathon at the weekend. Yay.

Just like Virgin’s very own Bob Fear who is running the Virgin London Marathon, also 25th April, for Virgin Unite along with Sir Richard Branson himself, I’m in the final 4 weeks of training hell. The difference being that Bob and Sir Richard will be amidst a whopping 36,000 runners and will be lucky enough to see the brand new 70ft Virgin Money hot air balloon that has been specially commissioned by Virgin Balloon Flights to support the event.

My Virgin Money Giving page has made fundraising a doddle and gives everyone a chance to learn what all this running is in aid of whilst my training blog, describes the ongoing agony. Virgin Balloon Flights will be supporting both myself and Bob Fear’s fundraising efforts by holding charity auctions for hot air balloon rides. Thanks VBF

Eve running a very hard race