This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@juno.com. Virgin's Chairman Perks Up Air Show July 23, 2002 By JOE SHARKEY Leave it to Richard Branson to bring the party supplies to a wake. With the irrepressible founder and chairman of Virgin Atlantic Airways on board, a new Virgin Airbus A340-600 did a ceremonial low-level pass over the airfield at Farnborough, England, yesterday morning before landing to become the centerpiece of the aircraft displays at the annual Farnborough Air Show. With airplane orders lagging and hundreds of retired airplanes sitting mothballed, representatives of the world's aircraft manufacturing and supplying industries didn't have much else to celebrate at Farnborough, a usually hearty event that one regular attendant called "moribund" during an invitation-only opening yesterday. So a few lusty cheers went up when the Virgin founder - while conceding that premium-class business travel is off and is likely to remain so for quite a while - declared that the introduction of the plane "signals another step towards recovery from the events of last year." The world's longest commercial aircraft, at 247 feet, the new Virgin airliner had departed shortly before on its maiden voyage from Heathrow International Airport after it was literally unveiled during a Las Vegas-style musical extravaganza in its hangar. Virgin will be the first customer to put the four-engine long-haul Airbus A340-600's in service, with the initial commercial flight on the New York- to-London route set for later this month. In Virgin's configuration, the new planes have 233 seats in the economy section, 28 in premium economy and 50 in Upper Class, the high-end business-class cabin. Virgin has ordered 10 of the planes (total cost: $1.9 billion), which will be phased in on the New York and Newark trans-Atlantic routes and in Tokyo and Hong Kong, where business travel is actually growing. The new A340-600 models are regarded as precursors to the in-development super-jumbo Airbus A380, which will have a capacity of more than 500 passengers. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/23/business/23MEMO.html?ex=1028435106&ei=1&en=53483bce809f888e HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company