Virgin Sun Airlines, branded as Virgin Sun, was a British

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flight ...

owned by the

Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding compa ...

, formed in 1998. The airline's main destinations were the Mediterranean and the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

. Virgin Sun's main bases were

Manchester Airport Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2024, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passengers (the busiest outside of London) ...

and

London Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport , also known as London Gatwick Airport (), is the Airports of London, secondary international airport serving London, West Sussex and Surrey. It is located near Crawley in West Sussex, south of Central London. In 2024, Gatwic ...

History

Virgin Sun was created as a charter airline in May 1999, operating from Gatwick Airport and Manchester Airport Terminal 2, leasing two Airbus A320-200 aircraft. After a successful launch and first summer season, Virgin Sun then received a third A320-200 and its first and only

Airbus A321-200 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body, commercial passenger Twinjet, twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was ...

the following year. The airline was known for its ground breaking approach to inflight service being the first UK charter airline to ditch the traditional style meal for something more 'fun' in its first year of operation. After boarding all guests were offered a can of SeaBreeze

cocktail A cocktail is a mixed drink, usually alcoholic beverage, alcoholic. Most commonly, a cocktail is a combination of one or more liquor, spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as juices, flavored syrups, tonic water, Shrub (drink), shrubs, and ...

(or a non-alcoholic version). After take off, Outbound guests were served with a meal of a

bacon Bacon is a type of Curing (food preservation), salt-cured pork made from various cuts of meat, cuts, typically the pork belly, belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central in ...

/ veggie sausage sandwich on

breakfast Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night. Various "typical" or "traditional" breakfast menus exist, with food choices varying by regi ...

flights or

hot dog A hot dog is a grilled, steamed, or boiled sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced bun. The term ''hot dog'' can also refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener ( Vienna sausage) or a frankfurter ( Frankfurter Würs ...

/ veggie sausage dog and potato wedges — prepared individually by the cabin crew with

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

s / sauces and an individual slice of chocolate gateau as a

dessert Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal; the course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream, and possibly a beverage, such as dessert wine or liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly umami, ...

. Inbound the meal was a jacket potato with a choice of 3 toppings and again a gateau dessert.

Tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

and

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

was served in coffee shop style

disposable cup A disposable cup is a type of tableware and disposable food packaging. Disposable cup types include paper cups, plastic cups, and foam cups. Expanded polystyrene is used to manufacture foam cups, and polypropylene is used to manufacture plasti ...

s with the option of a ' squirty cream' topping. Downroute, customers were offered an ice lolly as they boarded. In April 2001, two years after the airline commenced operations, Virgin Holidays decided to cease the operations of Virgin Sun, due to failing to make the expected profits. After a buyer was sought for the airline, it was eventually sold to Air 2000 which became First Choice Airways and subsequently merged with

Thomsonfly Thomsonfly Limited was a British charter and scheduled airline. Thomsonfly was the first stage of TUI AG's plans to expand its business within TUI UK prior to September 2007. After TUI UK merged with First Choice Holidays in September 2007, it ...

.Virgin Fleet sold
/ref> Virgin Sun ceased operations on 1 November 2001. Two of the Airbus A320-200s were put into storage in Bristol, and the

(G-VKIS) and one of the Airbus A320-200s (G-VMED) were returned to the lessor, GECAS. One of the Airbus A320-200s (G-VKID) was sold on 21 June 2002 to the low-cost Swedish airline Goodjet, which is now defunct. The other Airbus A320-200 (G-VTAN) was eventually sold to

Virgin Atlantic Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, West Sussex, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic A ...

on 22 June 2004.

Fleet

During its three-year existence, Virgin Sun had operated the following aircraft:

In popular culture

The airline featured prominently in the 2000 film '' Kevin and Perry Go Large''. One of Virgin Sun's Airbus A320-200 aircraft (G-VMED) was seen landing at

Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport is an international airport located about southwest of the city of Alicante and about east of the city of Elche in Spain. Alicante–Elche is the busiest airport in south-eastern Spain and serves bot ...

doubling as Ibiza Airport.

References

External links

Archive of Virgin Holidays website
{{Virgin Group Defunct airlines of the United Kingdom Airlines established in 1998 Airlines disestablished in 2001 S