Virgin Atlantic has become the first UK airline to offer cabin crew trained in British Sign Language (BSL). To celebrate this milestone, the airline partnered with Jodie Ounsley, a deaf star from Gladiators, and deaf twin content creators, Hermon and Heroda Berhane, to test its services on a flight from London Heathrow to Washington DC.
The initiative, captured in a new film released to mark International Week of Deaf People, highlights Virgin Atlantic’s commitment to making air travel more inclusive. Trained crew members provided in-flight assistance in BSL, ensuring that deaf passengers could navigate the flight, understand announcements, and enjoy accessible in-flight entertainment.
The feedback from Jodie, Hermon, and Heroda was shared with Virgin Atlantic’s newly created Accessibility Advisory Board. The board, composed of leaders with personal experiences in accessible travel, will help the airline enhance its services, ensuring inclusivity at every stage of the journey.
Virgin Atlantic’s efforts are informed by research conducted in partnership with the RNID (Royal National Institute for Deaf People), which highlights the challenges deaf travellers face. The study found that while 82% of people who are deaf or have hearing loss plan to travel in the next year, over half (58%) worry about communicating with cabin crew. Additionally, 81% believe deaf awareness training should be a standard practice across the aviation industry.
Other findings revealed that 90% of deaf travellers are concerned about missing key flight announcements, and 83% would like to see airlines introduce more technological solutions, such as real-time captioning and enhanced in-flight communication systems.
This initiative is part of Virgin Atlantic’s broader commitment to accessibility. The airline has also pledged to increase subtitled in-flight entertainment, offer on-demand BSL interpreters, and improve accessibility features on its booking platform. Since the start of 2023, the number of BSL-trained crew has more than doubled, with more planned expansions in the future.
Jodie commented, ‘Until recently I didn’t feel confident enough to fly on my own, but knowing that airlines like Virgin Atlantic can provide specially trained crew with the awareness and understanding to make me feel comfortable onboard is really empowering.’
Virgin Atlantic’s ongoing inclusivity efforts include BSL and Deaf Awareness training, developed in partnership with the deaf-led organization Remark!. This collaboration ensures crew members are equipped to meet the needs of deaf passengers.
