Virgin America, Inc. is a United States-based low-cost airline that began service on August 8, 2007. The airlines stated aim is to provide low-fare, high-quality service for "long-haul point-to-point service between major metropolitan cities on the Eastern and West Coast seaboards.""On the Record: Fred Reid," The San Francisco Chronicle, March 19, 2006. San Francisco International Airport is Virgin Americas principal base of operations. Virgin Americas frequent flyer program is known as eleVAte and runs on a "dollars spent versus miles accrued" model.

Virgin America, though the brainchild of British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, is a U.S. airline. By law, no more than 25% of a U.S. airline may be owned by foreign interests and must be under the "actual control" of U.S. citizens; Black Canyon Capital LLC owns 75% of the capital stock and is responsible for appointing two-thirds of the voting members of the board of directors. The remaining 25% of the company is owned by Virgin Group, which also licenses the Virgin brand to the airline.

Virgin America, headquartered in Burlingame, California, is separate from Virgin Atlantic (Virgin Atlantic Airways) and as such is under no obligation to work with Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Blue, Virgin Galactic or any other companies that share the Virgin brand name. However, on June 3, 2009, Virgin America established an interline agreement with Virgin Blues international subsidiary airline V Australia, which allows Virgin America customers access to V Australias trans-Pacific long haul network between Australia and the United States, and allows V Australia passengers access to Virgin Americas network within the U.S. The airline is featured on Fly Girls (Fly Girls (TV series)), a reality TV show on The CW Network.