Virgin America

Virgin America
IATA code :	VX
ICAO code :	VRD
Call sign :	REDWOOD (since 2018 ALASKA)
Founding:	2004
Operation stopped:	2018
Seat:	Burlingame , United States
Home airport :	San Francisco
Management:	C. David Cush ( CEO )
Frequent Flyer Program :	elevate
Fleet size:	65 (+ 38 orders)
Aims:	national and continental
Website:	www.virginamerica.com
Virgin America ceased operations in 2018. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Virgin America was an American airline based in Burlingame and based at San Francisco Airport .

history

In the spring of 2004, the Virgin Group announced its intention to found a new low-cost airline for long-haul flights based in the USA. Their name should be Virgin USA and flight operations should begin in mid-2005. The San Francisco Bay Area was selected as the location for the home base and later the headquarters .

Due to difficulties in finding US investors willing to participate in a new airline, the start of flight operations had to be postponed from mid-2005 to spring 2006. At the end of 2005, the company, which had meanwhile been renamed Virgin America , had accumulated enough capital and applied for the necessary permits from the United States Department of Transportation ( DOT for short ). The subsequent review process took place amid great debates among opponents and supporters of the new airline. The cities and representatives of the states of California and New York supported the society. The greatest opposition came from the Air Line Pilots Association and other airlines, led by Continental Airlines . The main argument of the opposition was that the capital shares were not under the control of US investors. These reasons were accepted by the DOT on December 27, 2006. In order to obtain the necessary permits for flight operations, Virgin America then changed the corporate structure and proposed that the voting shares be transferred to a trust audited by the DOT and that only two of the eight Virgin America supervisory boards be filled from the ranks of the Virgin Group. Even abandoning the Virgin brand name was up for debate. After further promised reforms of the corporate structure, the DOT granted approval for flight operations on March 20, 2007.

Virgin America ticket sales began in July 2007. On August 8, 2007, two years later than planned, flight operations finally began with non-stop scheduled flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles on the west coast to New York City on the east coast of the USA. The route network has been gradually expanded since then, but is still mainly geared towards coast-to-coast traffic.

On December 29, 2010, the airline was the first in the world to order 30 Airbus A320neos , followed by an order for 10 Airbus A321neos leased from GE Capital Aviation Services . The first aircraft, an Airbus A321neo , was delivered on April 20, 2017.

On January 23, 2012 it was announced that the airline had named an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number N845VA after the co-founder of Apple , Steve Jobs , who died in 2011 . On the fuselage of the aircraft was the quote "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" (Eng .: stay hungry, stay childish ), from a speech that Jobs gave in 2005 to graduates of Stanford University .

In April 2016, Virgin America was bought by Alaska Airlines . After approval by the authorities, the merger should be completed at the beginning of 2017. The Virgin America brand disappeared from airports on the night of April 24, 2018 to April 25, 2018. Since April 25, 2018, all flights are no longer operated under the abbreviation VX (Virgin America) but under AS (Alaska Airlines). Repainting and refitting has already started, but the airline is still giving itself until the end of 2019 .

Ownership

Economy class on board a Virgin America Airbus A320-200

Virgin America is an American airline despite being built by British entrepreneur Richard Branson . According to US law, the foreign ownership of a US airline cannot exceed 25%. VAI Partners LLC , a Delaware corporation of two investment companies , holds 75% of the capital and provides 2/3 of the voting rights on the Supervisory Board. The remaining 25% is owned by the Virgin Group , which also owns the license for the Virgin trademark . Alaska Airlines took over the airline in April 2016.

Destinations

Virgin America's route network focuses on connections between the west and east coasts of the United States. As of summer 2015, for example, the company connects Boston , Fort Lauderdale , New York City , Orlando and Washington, DC on the east coast with Los Angeles , San Diego , Portland , San Francisco and Seattle on the west coast. Other US destinations include Chicago , Austin and Las Vegas as well as Cancún and Los Cabos in Mexico.

In the meantime, flights to Philadelphia , Dallas , Anchorage , San Jose , Orange County and Toronto have been suspended .

fleet

A Virgin America Airbus A320-200

As of October 2017, Virgin America's fleet consists of 65 aircraft with an average age of 7.3 years:

Aircraft type	number	ordered	Remarks
Airbus A319-100	10
Airbus A320-200	53		11 with Sharklets equipped
Airbus A320neo		30th	Delivery expected from 2020
Airbus A321neo	02	08th
total	65	38

See also

• List of airlines
• Virgin Group

Web links

Commons : Virgin America  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Website of Virgin America (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Virgin Group makes concessions to get Virgin America flying ( Memento of the original dated December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Air Transport World of January 19, 2007 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Virgin America: This A321 Neo will soon be obsolete | aeroTELEGRAPH . In: aeroTELEGRAPH . April 20, 2017 ( aerotelegraph.com [accessed April 30, 2017]).
3. ↑ macrumors.com - Virgin America names jet after Steve Jobs. Retrieved January 24, 2012
4. ↑ austrianwings.info - Virgin America honors deceased Apple founder.Retrieved January 24, 2012
5. ↑ Stefan Eiselin: Takeover - Alaska Airlines buys Virgin America. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. April 4, 2016, Retrieved April 4, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Timo Nowack: Virgin America disappeared overnight. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. April 26, 2018, accessed on May 10, 2018 (German). 
7. ↑ Virgin America gets investors, files to begin flying in: San Francisco Business Times, December 8, 2005
8. ↑ Virgin America Secures $ 177 Million In Startup Funding, Names Chair  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Aviation Week of December 9, 2005  
9. ↑ Virgin Acquisition Notice , accessed May 27, 2015
10. ↑ Airfleets.net - Virgin America (English), accessed on October 4, 2017
11. ↑ Airbus - airbus.com - Orders and Deliveries (English), accessed on April 30, 2017
12. ↑ airliners.de - News from all over the world , November 16, 2012