Celebrating its 25th anniversary on Monday, Virgin Atlantic Airways announced the replacement of its current A340 fleet with ten new Airbus A330-300 passenger jets - the move of replacing the fuel-guzzling aircrafts to cost the company $2.1 billion.

The announcement about new jets was made by the airline's founder Sir Richard Branson, amid the silver jubilee celebrations at Heathrow. With the new aircraft, the airline intends launching routes to Beijing, Cancun and Vancouver. 

Sir Branson said: "This order is a sign of our confidence in the future. Companies that can invest should invest to protect jobs and get economic movement going again. We have had a very successful first 25 years and we are building for the next 25."

Talking about Virgin Atlantic's notable journey since its 1984 launch, Sir Branson said that the airline - which currently flies to 30 international destinations - has flown over 65 million passengers.

According to the Toulouse, France-based Airbus, while it will provide Virgin Atlantic with six wide-bodied, twin-engine medium-to-long range jets, the remaining four jets will be taken on lease by the airline from AerCap, the aircraft-leasing company based in Netherlands.

Virgin Atlantic is also said to be in discussions with Rolls-Royce as well as General Electric in connection with engines to power the new jets, five of which will be delivered in 2011 and five in 2012.