Virgin Atlantic and Delta are harnessing the pulling power of beer to entice Mancunians to their 230 unique American destinations.
Manchester residents were the honoured guests at an initiative on Friday 15 and Saturday 16 September that introduced quintessential flavours of American beers representing their cities.
The focal point of the free event in Spinningfields Square was a large vending machine housing 230 different beers from the 230 different destinations like a graphic, appetising map of the US.
From this initiative the two companies desire to expand the scope of their customers and also expand Mancunians’ travel habits.
Diane Selby, senior account manager for Virgin Atlantic’s leisure channel, said: “We want to open up America to central Manchester and we thought there was no cooler way of doing that than bringing 230 speciality beers from these destinations.”
The queues stretching back from the event support that sentiment.
Customers could not resist the lure of free beer and proved her claim that “we know Mancunians love a beer.”
However, not even the spectrum of beers could quench their thirst for all things America.
That is why our city was chosen as the perfect location to host such an event.
Selby added: “We’re dedicated to Manchester. It’s the second biggest hub for Virgin from the UK.”
Delta’s message to Mancunians outlined by Cornell Koster, Senior Vice President Europe, was to “come down and have a special beer on us and be inspired to make the U.S. your next destination.”
A first-hand recipient from this aim was Tom Harris, 26, who won free tickets to one of the 230 destinations, simply because he craved a beer and struck lucky.
He has never flown with either airline before and claimed: “It is definitely a good way to do it.”
In the future, he would consider the airlines to fly to the US because of the amazing hospitality they have provided.
Virgin Atlantic flies to seven destinations from Manchester including Orlando, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, New York and is due to start flights to Los Angeles.
Manchester has now moved into the top 18 busiest airports in Europe after a 9% increase in passenger numbers in 2017 from the previous year.
It also offers the greatest number of destinations from any UK airport.
Virgin and Delta are tapping into Manchester’s rapidly growing profile as a destination and also Mancunians’ unrelenting appetite for travel.
