Port of Seattle Welcomes Virgin America to Sea-Tac Airport

Water Cannon Salute Welcomes First Flight from San Francisco

With a water cannon salute, the Port of Seattle welcomed Virgin America's first flight from San Francisco to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport marking new daily non-stop service by the carrier. New service between Seattle and Los Angeles (LAX) will start on April 8.

"We are pleased to welcome Virgin America to Seattle," said Port of Seattle Commission President John Creighton. "Virgin America will offer Puget Sound travelers some unique, tech-driven in-flight features and amenities."

Launched in August 2007, Virgin America is a new U.S. airline that offers guests attractive fares and innovative features aimed at reinventing travel and making flying fun again. The Seattle flights will have a PC/video touch-screen at every seatback offering travelers more than 20 on-demand movies, live TV, a food ordering system, the ability to create a personal playlist from more than 3,000 MP3s, videogames, interactive maps and even a seat-to-seat chat feature. The planes also feature leather seats and mood lighting.

Virgin America's new routes will begin with three daily non-stop flights between Seattle and San Francisco International Airport. On April 8, 2008, three daily non-stop flights will begin between Seattle and Los Angeles International Airport. A fourth daily flight between Seattle and L.A. is scheduled to begin on May 11, 2008.

"The addition of Virgin America to Sea-Tac Airport will help further economic development and tourism for the Seattle region and the state," said Creighton.

This is the fourth new airline to announce service to Sea-Tac in the past 12 months: Air France started non-stop service to Paris; AeroMexico started non-stop service to Mexico City and Lufthansa begins non-stop service to Frankfurt on March 30. Northwest Airlines also announced new non-stop service to London