It’s an airline that has been acquired by Alaska Air Group and will fully merge with Alaska Airlines by 2018. However, in February, 2013, when the images of N844VA in the gallery below were taken, Virgin America was a standalone airline.
The photos in the gallery were taken at Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport (FLL) in February, 2013. We were returning to Toronto via Westjet after a Caribbean cruise on the Ruby Princess and some touring of South Florida.
For large sized, high definition versions of the images in the gallery, simply click on the individual photos. For more information on this specific aircraft, the Airbus A320 in general and the airline, see below.
Image Gallery
N844VA
Airbus A320
Virgin America
Resources
N844VA Virgin America Airbus A320 Image Gallery
N844VA
N844VA, an Airbus A320-200, made its first flight on September 15, 2011. On October 1, 2011, the airplane was delivered to Virgin America and named Sol Plane. N844VA is configured with eight first class seats, along with 12 main cabin select seats and 129 more in economy class. This is one of 53 Airbus A320-200 aircraft in the Virgin America fleet.
Airbus A320-200
The Airbus A320 was first introduced in 1988 with Air France. The A320 family consists of the original A320, along with the stretched out A321 and the shrunken A319 and A318. There have been nearly 7,500 from the Airbus A320 produced with nearly 4,400 of those being the A320-200 model.
The airliner has a standard cockpit crew of two and has a flight range of 6,100 kilometres, carrying a typical payload. Virgin America mostly flies within the continental United States, well within that flight range.
The Airbus A320-200 is 38 metres or 123 feet in length with a wingspan of 36 metres or 118 feet. At the tail, the airplane stands 12 metres or 39 feet tall.
Virgin America
Virgin America was founded in 2004 but did not commence operations until 2007. The airline is headquartered in Burlingame, California in the Bay Area. The main hub for Virgin is San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
Virgin has a fleet of 63 aircraft, consisting entirely of Airbus A319 and Airbus A320. 53 of those airplanes are the A320 model. The airline flies to 24 destinations. 21 of those destinations are within the United States and three are in Mexico.
In 2016, Virgin America was acquired by Alaska Air Group. It is expected that Virgin will fully merge with Alaska Airlines in 2018.
Resources
Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport