Virgin used its success in music retailing to enter the trans-atlantic airline business (Virgin Atlantic).
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U.K.-based airline Virgin Atlantic has announced that any of its 700 pilots can now apply to fly passengers on SpaceShipTwo, the flagship craft for the world's first sub-orbital space tourism venture, Virgin Galactic .
Virgin Atlantic specialises in long-haul routes to North America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
The spokesman said Aer Lingus is now the third biggest operator at Heathrow and argued it has the advantage over Virgin Atlantic of having short-haul experience.
Now it's only available in Virgin Atlantic's duty-free catalog.
And it was an American lawyer who approached Branson about starting what became Virgin Atlantic, now his best-known company.
Virgin Atlantic's first A330-300 aircraft, which took flight in April, has a new entertainment system that lets flyers rate in-flight movies via the seatback touch screen.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, the two other UK-based airlines who have ordered 787s, said they were still working towards their original delivery dates.
The offer came on the day that Virgin Atlantic announced details of a short-haul business to compete with British Airways on routes linking London's Heathrow airport and Scotland.
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He brought back the golden age of air travel and made money on it with his Virgin Atlantic airline, complete with Mad Men-style upstairs bars in the 747s and massages in the airport lounges.
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As rival Virgin Atlantic tipped off the OFT about the price-fixing scandal, it was granted immunity.
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Virgin Atlantic unveiled a photo of its new glass-bottom plane, giving everyone a window seat.
Their overtired bosses, meanwhile, can get a free in-flight massage if they travel Upper Class with Virgin Atlantic.
First is the point that Bastian sought to make: Delta, which is growing in New York, benefits immensely from its pending acquisition of 49% of Virgin Atlantic, which controls 22% of the Kennedy-Heathrow traffic.
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Virgin Atlantic, which relies on transatlantic routes for about two-thirds of its traffic, notes that American carriers are offering corporate customers discounts approaching 50% of published fares.
In a joint statement the bosses of Easyjet, British Airways owner IAG, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic said the increase would "hit millions of hard-working families and damage the wider economy".
Despite the problems affecting the aviation industry, as highlighted by the losses at British Airways and profit warnings from Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair announced a 19% rise in pre-tax profits to 90.1m euros, outstripping City expectations of a 15% rise.
Coming in second, in a four-way tie for second place, were Lufthansa, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet.
Interpublic Group (nyse: IPG - news - people ), which owns two of the agencies that pitched Virgin Atlantic , has laid off 10, 000 employees (some related to mergers) and shuttered 50 offices around the world since 2001.
Virgin Atlantic said BAA "still acted like a monopoly" and had neglected much-needed improvements at Gatwick, focusing instead on Heathrow.
The offshoot of billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways in December unveiled the first commercial passenger spaceship, a sleek black-and-white vessel that represents an expensive gamble on creating a commercial space tourism industry.
Virgin Atlantic had also expressed an interest, hoping to integrate bmi's short- and medium-haul routes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa with its own transatlantic routes to form a strong, Heathrow-based hub-and-spoke network.
Virgin Atlantic also said victims would not be allowed to board one of its planes without a fit-to-fly certificate from their doctor or a hospital, though there had been no cases yet.
When previous applications were blocked, the so-called Bermuda 2 Agreement was in place, whereby only four airlines, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines and American Airlines, could fly the transatlantic route out of Heathrow, an agreement that the United States government was keen to scrap by putting the hefty conditions on BA's application.
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