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Virgin Atlantic has announced that it will increase the number of premium economy seats on its Boeing 747s at Heathrow nearly two-fold.

With its Airbus planes at the London hub having undergone a refit to serve more premium economy passengers, the number of seats available on Virgin Atlantic's 747 aircraft will rise from 32 to 62 by Christmas.

Between 2000 and 2005 the airline saw a 56% rise in the number of customers using its premium economy class, which it claims to have invented in 1992.

In the last ten months alone the carrier has seen a 20% increase in passengers following a £12m revamp of the service.

Steve Ridgway, Virgin Atlantic chief executive, said: 'Having completed the refit across the Airbus fleet, we are delighted that this product exceeded our expectations and has resulted in a 20% growth in our premium economy passengers.

'This is a clear indication that we are streets ahead of our competitors and in order to seize further market share from our competitors we have decided to increase our capacity in premium economy on our Heathrow 747 aircraft.'

Customers using Virgin Atlantic's new offering from Heathrow will be provided with 21-inch-wide leather seats, laptop power and priority boarding.

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