The US low-cost airline owned partially by Richard Branson, Virgin America has filed for an initial public offering. Known for its mood lighting, access to WiFi, and comfort even in economy class, Virgin America offers flights to 22 cities in the US and Mexico using 53 Airbus A320 aircraft. The move is said to be apart of the airlines expansion plans as the US airline market economy starts to recover.
The airline has not yet decided how many shares it will offer or their price range, or indeed the data of the IPO in the filing. The registration statement does however say that they plan on raising $115 million, but that is only for the purposes of calculating a registration fee. The companies biggest shareholder with a 76.1 per-cent stake is VAI partners, a group of investors related to long-time Virgin America investor Cyrus Capital.
The IPO filing does say however, that they plan on depending on the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets to be successful in the risks section. International passengers flying into or out of San Francisco accounted for 53.6 per-cent of passengers last year, with Los Angeles accounting for 44.9 per-cent.
“Our future network plans include growing from our focus cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco to other major markets in North America” said the company, with plans to add services from Dallas Love Field to LaGuardia Airport in New York, and Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington DC.
