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Virgin America IATA VX ICAO VRD Callsign REDWOOD Founded 2004 Commenced operations August 8, 2007 Hubs San Francisco International Airport[1] Focus cities Los Angeles International Airport[2][3][4] Frequent flyer program elevate Fleet size 28[5] Destinations 7 Parent company VAI Partners LLC Headquarters Burlingame, Donald J. Carty (Chairman) Bob Dana (CFO) Website: http://www.virginamerica.com Virgin America, Inc. is a United States-based low-cost 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".[6] San Francisco International Airport is Virgin America's principal base of operations.[1] Virgin America's frequent flyer program is known as eleVAte and runs on a "dollars spent versus miles accrued" model.[7] Virgin America, though the brainchild of British entrepreneur Richard Branson, is a U.S. airline. By law, no more than 25% of a US airline may be owned by foreign interests and must be under the "actual control" of U.S. citizens;[8] VAI Partners LLC owns 75% of the capital stock and is responsible for appointing two-thirds of the voting members of the board of directors. The remaining 25% of the company is owned by Virgin Group,[9] which also licenses the Virgin brand to the airline. Virgin America is separate from Virgin Atlantic and as such is under no obligation to work with Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Blue, Virgin Nigeria, Virgin Galactic History "Contents May Be Under Pressure" at San Francisco International Airport 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.[10] 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.[11] Virgin America secured its first amount of funding in late 2005 and submitted the required U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) certificate application.[12] 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 | ||||
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