Virgin America Ranks No. 1 in Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards

New Airline Takes Top Honors as Best Domestic Airline for Second Year Running
in Annual World's Best Awards

SAN FRANCISCO, July 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Virgin America, the California-based
airline that is reinventing domestic air travel, today took the top honors for
the second year running as "Best Domestic Airline" in the prestigious Travel +
Leisure Annual World's Best Awards readers' survey. Travel + Leisure's
World's Best Awards highlight the results of an annual, impartial survey that
allows Travel + Leisure readers to share their opinions of their favorite
travel experiences.* In the annual survey, airlines are rated independently
by Travel + Leisure readers in several categories, including: cabin comfort,
food, in-flight service, customer service, and value.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090123/VIRGINAMERICALOGO)

"We're honored to receive the highest marks for the second consecutive year
from Travel + Leisure's readers - those who fly the most and expect the very
best in service, comfort and design," said Virgin America President and Chief
Executive Officer David Cush. "There are many surveys that attempt to rank
airline quality that are paid and do not reflect real guest reviews or that
exclude smaller carriers. Hearing directly from the readers of a respected
travel source that we're not only making the grade - but leading the industry
is hugely important for us as a start-up. This is a key milestone in our
second year flying and we're grateful for the outstanding contributions of our
teammates and for each of the 4.5 million guests who have flown with us to
date."

With award-winning service and a host of innovative amenities, Virgin America
has captured a list of travel industry best-in-class awards since launching
service in August 2007. Virgin America's rigorous in-flight and airport staff
training programs include a special focus on delivering concierge-like guest
care. The airline offers unrivalled value with low fares and high-tech
features like touch-screen seatback entertainment, power outlets near every
seat, mood-lighting and custom-designed leather seating with a deeper, more
comfortable pitch. In May, Virgin America became the first and only airline
to offer guests in-flight internet on every flight. Virgin America is also
the only airline in the U.S. with a touch-screen seatback menu that allows
guests to order what they want, when they want it during a flight. Virgin
America offers one of the largest selections of fresh menu items, with a focus
on lighter, more health-focused options in keeping with the airline's
California roots.

The complete Travel + Leisure 2009 results, including the Top 100 Hotels
Overall and Top 10 Cities Overall, are featured on
www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest now and in Travel + Leisure's August
issue, available on newsstands July 24. The Travel + Leisure World's Best
Awards winners for 2009 will be honored in New York City on July 21 at an
awards event at the Cooper Square Hotel.

"Our goal as a new carrier is to reinvent the flying experience for the better
by listening to what travelers want, so we're constantly seeking real-time
feedback, whether through the Red seatback screens or now via in-flight WiFi,"
added Cush. "We've even implemented suggestions received from some of our
very first guests and their feedback will continue to be an essential
ingredient in creating the best customer experience in the U.S. skies."

Virgin America offers over 100 flights a day and flies to San Francisco, Los
Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Seattle, Las Vegas, San Diego, Boston and
Orange County. The airline offers daily flights from: SFO to LAX, SFO to JFK,
SFO to SAN, SFO to IAD, SFO to LAS, LAX to JFK, LAX to IAD, SFO to SEA, SEA to
LAX, JFK to LAS, BOS to LAX, BOS to SFO and SFO to SNA. Virgin America has
flown more than 4.5 million guests since its inaugural flights in August 2007
and now counts over 925,000 Elevate loyalty program members.

EDITORS NOTE: Virgin America is a U.S.-controlled and operated airline and is
an entirely separate company from Virgin Atlantic. Sir Richard Branson's
Virgin Group is a minority share investor in Virgin America.

About Virgin America: Headquartered in California and launched in August
2007, Virgin America is one of the fastest growing start-up U.S. airlines of
all time and currently employs over 1400 people. Virgin America offers guests
attractive fares and a host of innovative features aimed at reinventing air
travel. The airline's base of operations is San Francisco International
Airport's ultra-modern International Terminal. The airline's new aircraft
offer interactive in-flight entertainment systems and power outlets near every
seat for electronic gear. Virgin America now offers in-flight internet
service on every flight and hosts the largest in-flight entertainment library
in the domestic skies via its touch-screen Red(TM) seatback system. In
addition to a 25-film library including Oscar winners, foreign language films
and Hollywood blockbusters, Red features live TV, videogames, seat-to-seat
chat, 3,000 MP3s, music videos, interactive Google maps and more. In just
over a year flying, Virgin America was named "Best Domestic Airline in the
Conde Nast Traveler 2008 Readers' Choice Awards and "Best Domestic Airline" in
Travel + Leisure 2008 World's Best Awards. For more: www.virginamerica.com

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*About the Survey: A questionnaire developed by the editors of Travel +
Leisure, in association with Harris Interactive, an independent research firm,
was made available to Travel + Leisure readers at tlworldsbest.com from
January 15, 2009, to March 29, 2009. In the February and March 2009 issues of
Travel + Leisure, readers were invited to participate. A select group of
readers also received invitations via e-mail. Respondents were permitted to
complete the survey only once. To protect the integrity of the data, after
March 29, 2009, respondents were screened by Travel + Leisure and responses
from any identified travel-industry professionals who completed the survey
were eliminated from the final tally by Harris Interactive. Only candidates
that received a required minimum number of responses were eligible for
inclusion. Tlworldsbest.com was maintained, monitored, and kept secure by
Travel + Leisure, while the survey website, where respondents were redirected,
was maintained by Harris Interactive, which collected and tabulated the
responses and kept them confidential. The scores are indexed averages of
responses concerning applicable characteristics. Respondents were asked to
rate hotels, islands, destination spas, and car rental agencies on five
characteristics; cities, cruise lines, and tour operators/safari outfitters on
six characteristics; and hotel spas and airlines on four characteristics (see
below). In the hotel, cruise line/cruise ship, and airline categories,
respondents could also rate additional optional characteristics; these ratings
were not included in the final score. For each characteristic, respondents
were asked to rate a candidate on a scale of 1 to 5, where "1" means poor and
"5" means excellent. Required component ratings were then averaged, creating
an overall score. A minimum number of responses was necessary for a candidate
to be eligible for inclusion in the World's Best Awards listings. Some
companies were rated in both the cruise lines and tour operators/safari
outfitters categories; in these cases, they have different scores for each
category. These were the categories and characteristics:
-- For hotels: rooms/facilities, location, service, restaurants/food,
value. Optional: for business, for families.
-- Hotel types were determined using the number of rooms and suites. Inns
have fewer than 40 rooms; Resorts have 40 rooms or more. Small City
Hotels have fewer than 100 rooms; Large City Hotels have 100 rooms or
more. In some regions, inns and resorts and large and small city
hotels
were grouped together.
-- For destination spas: accommodations/ambience, treatments, service,
food, value.
-- For hotel spas: ambience, treatments, service, value.
-- For cities: sights, culture/arts, restaurants/food, people, shopping,
value.
-- For islands: natural attractions, activities/sights, restaurants/food,
people, value.
-- For cruise lines/cruise ships: cabins, food, service,
itineraries/destinations, activities, value. Optional: for families.
Small-ship cruise lines carry 600 passengers or fewer.
-- For tour operators and safari outfitters: staff/guides,
itineraries/destinations, activities, accommodations, food, value.
-- For airlines: cabin comfort, in-flight service, customer service,
value.
Optional: food.
-- For car rental agencies: vehicle selection, vehicle availability,
car-rental location, service, value.

SOURCE Virgin America

Abby Lunardini of Virgin America, +1-650-533-7576,
abby.lunardini@virginamerica.com; or Liz Marsh, +1-212-382-5684,
elizabeth.c.marsh@aexp.com, or Jill S. Davison, +1-212-382-5679,
jill.s.davison@aexp.com, both of Travel + Leisure