Virgin finds a home in America

A new budget airline will soon be flying the American skies. Low-cost carrier, Virgin America Airlines, was just granted an operating license from U.S. aviation authorities on Wednesday. The airline immediately announced plans to begin selling tickets from its base in San Francisco.

Although the airline has yet to announce the full extent of its planned routes, flights will take off in August from San Francisco flying Airbus A319 and A320 aircrafts. The airline plans to serve ten cities by the end of its first year of operations in America.

Virgin America Airlines is part of British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s larger empire which started as a record company and now includes airlines like Virgin Atlantic. In order to get approval in America, the company was required to restructure it’s investor financing in compliance with American laws regarding overseas influence in internal airlines.

Concerns about foreign ownership contributed to the airline’s first proposal being declined last year.

Gaining the operating license was only the first hurdle for the newest airline on America’s crowded domestic flight market. Virgin will have to compete with the likes of Jet Blue and Southwest Airlines in an atmosphere where rising fuel prices and declining profits haunt all airlines.

www.virginamerica.com