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.
Read more about Virgin America: History, Corporate Offices, Destinations, Fleet, Cabin
Famous quotes containing the words virgin america, virgin and/or america:
“As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“‘Tis chastity, my brother, chastity.
She that has that is clad in complete steel,
And like a quivered nymph with arrows keen
May trace huge forests and unharbored heaths,
Infamous hills and sandy perilous wilds,
Where, through the sacred rays of chastity,
No savage fierce, bandit, or mountaineer
Will dare to soil her virgin purity.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“I am reminded by my journey how exceedingly new this country still is. You have only to travel for a few days into the interior and back parts even of many of the old States, to come to that very America which the Northmen, and Cabot, and Gosnold, and Smith, and Raleigh visited.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)