Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340 G-VEIL coming in to land at London Heathrow airport in blue sky
Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited, is a British airline majority-owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group. The Virgin Group owns 51% of the airline, and Delta Air Lines owns the remaining 49%. Virgin Atlantic's head office is in Crawley, West Sussex, England, near Gatwick Airport. The airline was established in 1984, and was originally planned by its co-founders Randolph Fields and Alan Hellary to fly between London and the Falkland Islands. The pair met Richard Branson and, through negotiations, renamed the airline Virgin Atlantic. The maiden flight from Gatwick to Newark Liberty International Airport was completed on 22 June 1984. Virgin Atlantic uses a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing wide-body jets and operates between the United Kingdom, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia from its main base at Gatwick with secondary bases at London Heathrow and Manchester. The airline has operated domestic flights within the United Kingdom since 31 March 2013. It is administratively separate from other Virgin-branded airlines. In 2012, Virgin Atlantic carried million passengers,making it the seventh-largest UK airline in terms of passenger volume. In the year to February 2013, it had an annual operating loss of £ million. Virgin Atlantic uses a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft, with an average age of years as of July 747-400s and Airbus A330-300s are used on selected routes from Gatwick, Glasgow, and Manchester, with the A330 being used on other flights as well. Boeing 747s, Airbus A340s and Airbus A330s are used interchangeably on all routes from Heathrow. In August 2002, Virgin Atlantic became the first airline to operate the Airbus aging Airbus A340-300 aircraft is due to be phased out of commercial service, as rising fuel costs have made it less economical to run. Pictured is Airbus A340-642 G-VEIL coming in to land at Heathrow
Size: 2524px × 3799px
Location: Heathrow, London, UK
Photo credit: © Avpics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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