How Virgin Atlantic uses AI to enhance every step of travel

Virgin Atlantic is a global airline known for delivering memorable travel experiences and connecting millions of people around the world.

We spoke with Oliver Byers, Chief Financial Officer at Virgin Atlantic, about how the airline is approaching AI investments and ROI, supporting safe and responsible adoption in a regulated industry, creating customer experiences that stay true to the brand, and balancing big ambitions with thoughtful governance.

Our Executive Function series features perspectives from leaders driving transformation through AI.

CFOs often have a high bar to pass to support investing in new technologies. As CFO, what convinced you that AI was worth prioritizing across the business initially and at a larger scale?

At Virgin Atlantic, we’ve always seen ourselves as a challenger—willing to take bold bets that help us stand apart. AI fits that philosophy perfectly. Being a smaller airline compared to our global competitors means we need to find smart ways to offset scale disadvantages. Leading-edge technology gives us that edge.

When we started exploring enterprise AI a few years ago, we took a broad approach—testing, learning, and seeing where the real value lay. Over time, we narrowed our partnerships and went deep with a few select leaders, including OpenAI. The conviction came quickly: we could see tangible benefits day to day, from early pilots to our ChatGPT Enterprise trials.

“We can see the benefit that it brings day to day…from small-scale trials that we ran all the way through to larger-scale programs that we’re now running—it’s delivering tangible benefit. From any CFO’s perspective you can’t ignore it—you’ve got to embrace it.”

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Once you see the returns—from faster processes to happier people—you can’t ignore it. As a CFO, that makes the investment decision easy.

What excites me most is how these smaller wins add up. Each one improves productivity, but collectively they’re reshaping how we operate.

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