Virgin America Inc. is an American airline that was founded in 2004 and began operations in 2007. Headquartered in Burlingame, California in the San Francisco Bay Area, with San Francisco International Airport as its main hub, Virgin America is a brand that was created by the British Virgin Group as an American counterpart to the corporation's other airlines. The airline's mission statement entails providing low-fare, high-quality service for service between major metropolitan cities on the Eastern and West Coast seaboards. Virgin America's frequent flyer program Elevate provides award flights and other benefits to frequent fliers.

Alaska Air Group acquired Virgin America in 2016, at a valuation of $2.6 billion, with additional expenses bringing the cost to approximately $4 billion. With the transaction, Virgin America became a sister carrier to the other Alaska Air Group subsidiaries Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air. Alaska Air Group is anticipated to merge Virgin America with Alaska Airlines, with a single operating certificate being produced in 2018.

In early 2004, Virgin Group announced its intention to found a United States-based, low-fare airline called "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 chosen as the location of its flight operations center and later as its corporate headquarters. The airline changed its name from "Virgin USA" to "Virgin America" and due to the difficulty in finding U.S. investors willing to gamble on a new airline in an already congested industry, the launch date was pushed back from mid-2005 to early 2006.

Virgin America secured U.S. investors Black Canyon Capital and Cyrus Capital Partners in late 2005. Once the new owners were on board, Virgin’s General Counsel submitted the required U.S. Department of Transportation certificate application on December 9, 2005. Unfortunately, despite significant public support for the new California-based airline, the approval process was mired with debate between the support and opposition of the new airline. City and state representatives from California and New York led the support for the airline, while the biggest opposition came from a national aviation labor union, Air Line Pilots Association, as well as the pre-existing Houston, Texas-based competitor Continental Airlines. The review of Virgin America's application was prolonged due to this opposition, which claimed Virgin America, being a subsidiary of the United Kingdom-based Virgin Group, would not be under U.S. ownership or control. The application was initially denied by the Department of Transportation on December 27, 2006.

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