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Virgin America Inc., the trendy California-based discount airline, is aiming for an initial public offering as soon as next year, after it hopes to post its first annual profit in 2012, Chief Executive David Cush said.

When the carrier was founded in 2007, it targeted this year or next for an IPO. But fuel costs “‘essentially wiped out the operating profit'” for 2011, delaying plans, Mr. Cush said Thursday in an interview.

Virgin America is the fastest-growing airline in the U.S., with plans to increase capacity by about 30% this year. The Burlingame, Calif., airline lost nearly $70 million in the first nine months of 2011, according to the most recent results available, but Mr. Cush said the company is showing strong profits in routes it has operated for at least a year.

source: WSJ.com

Thanks to new technology, customers travelling with Sir Richard Branson’s firm will be able to call, text and email on their way to holiday destinations in the US, the Caribbean, Dubai, Australia and Africa.

The service – which will be up and running once a special system is installed to support the phones – will be provided on all of Virgin‘s flights from Gatwick.

It is the first time calls have been allowed on outbound journeys from a major British airport.

source: Mirror.co.uk

Virgin America has teamed up with Google to offer travelers access to a Chromebook, Google’s new laptop, when they fly with the US airline.

The carrier announced June 30 that some passengers will be able to pick up a Chromebook at the gate on select US domestic routes, to trial while they fly.

As the Chromebook is a cloud-based computer and requires an internet connection for almost all of its features, flyers who get their hands on the laptop will be given a free in-flight WiFi.

source: Independent.co.uk

Virgin America is the best airline in the USA. At least that’s according to ‘Condé Nast Traveler’ magazine. The publication revealed this week that the California-based low-cost carrier was named the top North American airline in its 2010 Readers’ Choice Awards. It was the third-consecutive year Virgin America took the top spot in ‘Condé Nast Traveler”s rankings.

Virgin America beat out rival discounter JetBlue to take the top spot. Rounding out the North America top 10 (in order) are Hawaiian, Alaska Airlines, Frontier, Continental, USA 3000, Southwest, Horizon Air and AirTran. Continental is the only legacy carrier to have made the top 10.

source: USA Today

Branson, whose Virgin Group controls BA rival Virgin Atlantic, said in a statement that an alliance between BA and American would strangle airline competition on routes between London’s Heathrow Airport and the United States.

“‘If the proposed merger between BA and American Airlines is allowed to go ahead, then the result for passengers, employees, communities and for fair and healthy competition, would be disastrous,'” Branson said.

Virgin Atlantic has asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to reject the proposed alliance, which would allow BA and American Airlines to cooperate on schedules, fares and cost-cutting.

source: Reuters

Virgin America, a spinoff of Virgin Atlantic, said Wednesday it will add one daily non-stop flight between New York’s John F. Kennedy International and Las Vegas McCarran International airports.

Effective Sept. 4, the flight adds to the young airline’s growing seven-city network.

source: Business Week

Virgin America is launching flight service between Seattle and San Francisco, and Seattle and Los Angeles.

The new airline, which launched in August, said it would open service between Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and San Francisco in March 2008, with three daily round-trip flights. Service between Sea-Tac and Los Angeles will follow in April, also with three daily round-trip flights.

Virgin America said it would add a fourth Seattle-Los Angeles daily round-trip flight beginning in May.

source: Business Journal

Virgin America today launches twice daily service from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Guests on the first flights should expect some typical Virgin America-style fun at the ticket counters and departure gates, with Virgin America teammates decked out in costume as our Founding Fathers at LAX and as Hollywood celebrities to welcome guests at Washington Dulles.

source: primenewswire.com

The launch of low-cost airline Virgin America Inc this year has triggered a fare war that has nearly halved ticket prices on some routes and could erode earnings at rival airlines.

The competition has been especially fierce between Virgin, which is partly backed and fully branded by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, and UAL Corp’s United Airlines on the transcontinental route between San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Low-cost carriers JetBlue Airways  and Southwest Airlines also have been drawn into a turf war with Virgin and responded with capacity additions and fare cuts.

source: Reuters

Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Virgin America, the newly launched American airline, has selected Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the platform on which to host its commercial website.  The airline chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux for its reputation for scalability and security. 

source: Irish dev