Virgin America lands in Toronto

[jesseps]

Virgin America marked its first international route with service to Toronto on Tuesday with a glitzy "mile-high" party to Toronto.

 

Joining flamboyant entrepreneur Richard Branson, who partly owns the upstart airline, were celebrity passengers, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Canadian pop star Drake.

 

Virgin's once-daily service to Toronto from Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport began last week, but the celebration was delayed due to G20 events in Toronto.

 

On the first leg of the flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Schwarzenegger and Branson also announced the airline's plans to serve Mexico this winter.

 

Toronto native and Grammy nominated recording artist Drake then hosted a celebrity studded party on the San Francisco to Toronto leg.

 

The Airbus A320 aircraft, dubbed Air Drake, was set to be greeted with a water cannon salute after landing in Toronto.

 

(Courtesy of CBC News)

[Ornello Mastrocola]

I would love for Virgin America to have Montreal as one of their destinations. That's an awesome airline.

[jesseps]

Well, we actually don't know where Virgin America's next destination will be, but we do know the airline just purchased 40 new Airbus A320 aircraft, with options for 20 additional aircraft. What's this mean? Well, more planes mean more flights; more flights mean new routes; new routes means... well, you get the point.

 

So far this year Virgin America announced new routes into Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Toronto. Rumors are still flying high about the airlines' potential entry into Mexico, and the Midwest is still hopeful the big red planes will land in Chicago but for now, we just have additional planes... no additional destination confirmations.

 

(Courtesy of Gadling)