Virgin America

Virgin America

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." San Francisco International Airport is Virgin America's principal base of operations and sole hub. Virgin America's frequent flyer program Elevate runs on a "dollars spent versus miles accrued" model.

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; VAI Partners owns 75% of the capital stock; the remaining 25% of the company is owned by Virgin Group, which also licenses the Virgin brand to the airline.

Virgin America, headquartered in Burlingame, California, 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.