Virgin America took its final flights this week and shut down operations as of Tuesday evening, leaving many fans disappointed.
Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin for $2.6 billion two years ago. Overnight, all branding associated with Virgin at the 29 U.S. and Mexican airports it serviced was removed.
Virgin’s final two flights Tuesday night were Virgin America Flight 1182, which departed San Francisco at 9:30 p.m. and, two minutes later, Virgin America Flight 1948, which took off for Los Angeles at 9:32 p.m.
“We’re planning to delight our guests flying on these last two flights with a few surprises,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement prior to the flights, according to USA Today.
The passengers on those final two flights had prepared a few surprises of their own.
“We’ll be having a get-together in the gate area before the flight,” said Nate Vallier, according to USA Today. “We’ll have posters, memorabilia and other swag to hand out and, after the flight, we’ll be gathering in the Alaska Airlines lounge in LAX to toast to the sunset of the Virgin America brand.”
Although Henry Harteveldt wasn’t on either flight, he remembers many innovations Virgin America brought to the industry.
“Not just mood lighting, but innovations that were copied by some other airlines, such as a spending-based frequent-flier program, fleet wide Wi-Fi, in-seat power at every row, at-seat food and beverage ordering, and a focus on fresher and organic foods,” he said, USA Today reported.
On Wednesday morning, Virgin America officially ceased to exist.
“We’ll have a single flight network,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement. “All flights will be referred to as Alaska Airlines flights. There will only be Alaska ticket counters, gates and baggage claim areas. We’ll operate one website (alaskaair.com), one mobile app (Alaska’s) and only Alaska check-in kiosks at airports. We’ll have a single call center.”
Not too many people on Twitter were happy about Virgin's demise.
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