Delaware corporation Virgin America Inc., a premium affordable airline, filed an initial public offering (IPO) on Monday to take the company public. As of March 2014, Virgin America provides flights throughout the United States and Mexico between 22 airports and 53 aircraft vessels.

Virgin America, which focus their flight schedules on their primary cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles while flying to other destinations in North America, differentiate themselves from other Low Cost Carriers in the U.S. by incorporating high-end traveler values. 

The company is known for its trendy and modern Airbuses that make traveling both easy and relaxing. Whether traveling first class or economy, each Airbus comes equipped with inflight Wi-Fi access, leather seats, on-board mood lighting, high-quality food offers and an inflight entertainment system equipped with a 9 inch personal touch-screen interface.

Interior of Virgin America cabin

Investors should not get confused between Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic which have no relationship other than their part owner. British billionaire and part owner Sir Richard Branson owns 22% of Virgin America shares and 51% of Virgin Atlantic shares. Virgin Atlantic is Virgin America’s sister airline which operates in over 35 destinations worldwide.

In 2013 Virgin America had its first profitable year since it began its operations in 2007,  earning a net income of $10.1 million on operating revenues of $1.4 billion. In addition, the company has increased their revenues per available seats by over 9% since 2012, making it the greatest increase of any major U.S. airline while maintaing the lowest costs.

The company plans to expand their services from their primary cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles to larger markets throughout the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Virgin America is committed to take delivery of 10 Airbus A320 aircrafts between July 2015 and June 2016 and is expected to continue expanding at this pace after 2016.

On the SEC Form S-1Registration Statement, the company released a statement that “investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks … before making a decision to invest.” The statement stated a possible risk of increase in aircraft fuel prices, a decrease of aircraft fuel availability, fair increases that will not cover increased fuel costs and the possibility that their fuel hedging program would fail. 

Currently, the airline’s largest shareholder is VAI Partners, controlled by Cyrus Capital Partners. VAI owns more than 75% of the airline’s shares.  

Topics: Delaware, IPO, SEC