Speaking at the Accelerate Aviation 2018 conference in London, the airline’s senior vice president revenue management, digital and distribution David Geer said the decision allows customers to choose three different levels of service within the cabin, allowing them to choose from options like hand luggage only or extra legroom and pay accordingly.

He added: "What we’ve seen with having three products in the economy cabin is it depends on the market and the time of year you are flying.

"It does give us the opportunity to tap into particular sources of demand."

Geer added the joint venture with Delta Air Lines is also proving popular, with Virgin benefiting from the scale of its partner’s operations.

He said: "From a Virgin Atlantic perspective it is one of the biggest structural boosts we’ve had with the size and location of the network.

"Tapping in to Delta has given us extra business demand through their hubs."

Nor does Geer believe the advantages are all one-way. He added: "When creating the customer proposition we can have the Delta scale and the Virgin flair and let them come together."

Meanwhile, he said the success of Virgin’s premium cabin remains strong and is informing future business decisions in the airline.

Geer said: "If anything we’ll use the opportunity to refleet and refresh the cabins to actually increase the size of the premium cabin rather than the other way round."