VIRGIN AMERICA HOLDS ITS COURSE

The 5-year-old airline keeps expanding despite red ink

Even by the standards of today’s economy, Virgin America’s financial health seems pretty weak: While enjoying a hip, high-tech reputation, the San Francisco airline has reported only one profitable three-month period since it launched nearly five years ago.

If the airline’s executives are worried, they aren’t showing it. In fact, they continue to hire at a brisk pace — 500 workers last year — and, at a time when other airlines are cutting back, they have added routes on a regular basis. They say they are laying the groundwork for a money-making airline.

“We are happy with the trajectory it’s going,” said billionaire Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, a minority share owner in the privately held airline. “If we wanted to make profits, we would stop expanding.”

Then again, the nation’s only major California-based airline has never followed a traditional path.

Only a few months after launching in 2007, the airline held a Victoria’s Secret fashion show onboard a flight from Los Angeles to New York. Since 2010, the airline has teamed up with animal shelters in San Francisco to fly about 200 homeless Chihuahuas to New York to get them adopted by apartment dwellers in the Big Apple.

Virgin America is also the first U.S. airline to install power outlets near every seat and equips every cabin with soft lighting that changes from pink to blue to purple, based on the time of day.

It’s a cool and hip style that has won over many young devoted passengers and helped beat out bigger and more established airlines for top awards from Conde Nast Traveler and Travel & Leisure magazines over the last four years. The airline’s loyal customers, however, were quick to jump on Facebook to complain

Michael Robinson Chavez Los Angeles Times VIRGIN AMERICA, the only major airline based in California, was envisioned as a low-cost carrier with high-tech amenities. It was launched in August 2007.