San Francisco – Maverick airline Virgin America plans to begin selling tickets Thursday, giving travelers their first chance to book a trip on planes equipped to pamper passengers even when they aren’t flying first class.
The airline’s inaugural flights are scheduled to take off Aug. 8 from Los Angeles and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and arrive at roughly the same time late that morning in San Francisco, which will serve as Virgin America’s hub.
Tickets for the flights were expected to go on sale Thursday morning through Virgin America’s website and its customer-service number, 877-359-8474. A one-way ticket between Los Angeles and San Francisco will start at $44, while one-way tickets for the San Francisco-New York flights will start at $139.
Burlingame-based Virgin America also will sell tickets for flights to Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., scheduled to start in September and October.
Conceived by British billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin America has raised nearly $300 million from investors, led by Branson’s Virgin Group.
The airline named Denver as one of 30 cities it is considering expanding to in the next five years.
