'Fifty Shades' to be offered on Virgin Atlantic flights

Published Jul 6 2012, 10:24 BST  |  By Andrew Laughlin

Virgin Atlantic has announced that it is looking into making bestselling erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey available to passengers as an audio book during flights.

EL James's explicit novel is the fastest adult paperback to sell one million copies, as well as smashed the record for the most sales in a single week.

Alongside massive physical book sales, the author's Fifty Shades trilogy is also the biggest seller on Amazon's Kindle UK digital books store.



Now Virgin Atlantic wants to bring the book's "saucy content" to its passengers, so they can get hot under the collar at 35,000 feet.

Fifty Shades of Grey tells the story of virgin Anastasia Steele, who meets a wealthy businessman with particular tastes for bedroom activity.

The novel has already sold more than 10m copies, and continues to fly out of stores.

"Fifty Shades of Grey has quickly gained notoriety as a 'naughty novel' leaving some women embarrassed reading their copy in a public space," said Virgin Atlantic's Head of PR Fay Burgin.

"We want to give our female passengers the chance to enjoy the book in an intimate way, away from prying eyes.

"Of course, we can't promise to spare any blushes and can't be held responsible for any risqué behaviour that listening to the recording inspires."

Audio books are a new feature of Virgin's JAM in-flight entertainment system, accessed via a touchscreen panel and offering more than 300 hours of content.