3 Destinations 4 Fleet 5 Cabin 6 References 7 Further reading

Richard Branson (Minority owner)
Website    virginamerica.com
Virgin America, Inc. is a United States-based airline that began service on August 8, 2007. The airline's stated aim is to provide low-fare, high-quality service for "long-haul point-to-point service between major metropolitan cities on the Eastern and West Coast seaboards."[2] San Francisco International Airport is Virgin America's main hub, but the airline also has a focus city at Los Angeles International Airport.[3] Virgin America's frequent flyer program Elevate provides award flights and other benefits to frequent fliers.[4]
Virgin America, though the brainchild of British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, is a U.S. airline. By law, no more than 25% of a U.S. airline may be owned by foreign interests and must be under the "actual control" of U.S. citizens;[5][6] VAI Partners owns 75% of the capital stock; the remaining 25% of the company is owned by Virgin Group,[7] which also licenses the Virgin brand to the airline.
Virgin America, headquartered in Burlingame, California in the San Francisco Bay Area, is separate from and as such is under no obligation to work with any companies that share the Virgin brand name. However, Virgin America partners with many of the other Virgin-branded airlines.
Contents  [hide]
1 History
1.1 Opposition and setbacks
1.2 Clearance and take-off
1.3 2010s
2 Corporate offices
3 Destinations
4 Fleet
5 Cabin
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
8.1 Video clips
History[edit]

In early 2004, Virgin Group announced its intent to start a new, United States-based, low-fare airline it named "Virgin USA". At the time, Virgin USA expected flights to begin by mid-2005. After considering several key areas, the San Francisco Bay Area was picked to be the location of its flight operations center, and later its corporate headquarters.[8] The airline also changed its name from "Virgin USA" to "Virgin America". Because it had trouble finding U.S. investors willing to gamble on a new airline, given the state of the already crowded U.S. airline industry, the launch date was pushed back from mid-2005 to early 2006.[9]
Opposition and setbacks[edit]
Virgin America secured its first amount of funding in late 2005 and submitted the required U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) certificate application.[10] The approval process was filled with debate from the support and opposition of the new airline. City and state representatives from California and New York led the support for the airline. The biggest opposition came from the Air Line Pilots Association (a national aviation labor union) and existing competitor U.S. airlines led by Houston-based Continental Airlines. The review of Virgin America's application was prolonged because of this opposition, which claimed Virgin America would not be under U.S. ownership or control.[11] The application was denied by the Department of Transportation on December 27, 2006.[12]