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 airline ticket, ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad h ...

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 the Companies House, who class it as a holding c ...

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

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

. 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 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those n ...

and

London Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Hea ...

History

Virgin Sun Airbus A320-214; G-VMED, June 2001 (8297179365)

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 Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

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, commercial passenger twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was the first derivative of the ba ...

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 an alcoholic mixed drink. Most commonly, cocktails are either a combination of spirits, or one or more spirits mixed with other ingredients such as tonic water, fruit juice, flavored syrup, or cream. Cocktails vary widely across ...

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

bacon Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...

/ 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.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...

flights or

hot dog A hot dog (uncommonly spelled hotdog) is a food consisting of a grilled or steamed sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced Hot dog bun, bun. The term hot dog can refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener (Vienna sausag ...

/ veggie sausage dog and

potato wedges Potato wedges are irregular wedge-shaped slices of potato, often large and unpeeled, that are either baked or fried. They are sold at diners and fast food restaurants. They are usually seasoned with a variety of spices, commonly paprika, salt ...

— prepared individually by the cabin crew with

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), 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 ...

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 confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and ...

. Inbound the meal was a

jacket potato A baked potato, known in some parts of the United Kingdom (though not generally Scotland) as a jacket potato, is a preparation of potato. It may be served with fillings, toppings or Condiment, condiments such as butter, cheese, sour cream, grav ...

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 southwestern China and northe ...

and

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

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 An ice pop is a liquid-based frozen snack on a stick. Unlike ice cream or sorbet, which are whipped while freezing to prevent ice crystal formation, an ice pop is "quiescently" frozen—frozen while at rest—and becomes a solid block of ice. ...

as they boarded. In April 2001, two years after the airline commenced operations,

Virgin Holidays Virgin Holidays Limited, trading as Virgin Atlantic Holidays, is a company within the Virgin Group that offers holidays worldwide with destinations including the US and Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Ocean and the Fa ...

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 First Choice Airways Limited was a British charter airline of European tour operator TUI Travel PLC, based in Crawley, England until its merger with Thomsonfly to form Thomson Airways (now TUI Airways) in 2008. It flew to more than 60 destinati ...

which became

First Choice Airways First Choice Airways Limited was a British charter airline of European tour operator TUI Travel PLC, based in Crawley, England until its merger with Thomsonfly to form Thomson Airways (now TUI Airways) in 2008. It flew to more than 60 destinati ...

and subsequently merged with

Thomsonfly Thomsonfly 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 becam ...

. Virgin Sun ceased operations on 1 November 2001. Two of the

s were put into storage in Bristol, and the

(G-VKIS) and one of the

s (G-VMED) were returned to the lessor,

GECAS GECAS (GE Capital Aviation Services) was an Irish–American commercial aviation financing and leasing company. AerCap acquired the company from GE Capital on November 1, 2021. GECAS was the largest commercial airline leasing/financing company in ...

. One of the

s (G-VKID) was sold on 21 June 2002 to the low-cost Swedish airline Goodjet, which is now defunct. The other

(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, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and w ...

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 ''Kevin & Perry Go Large'' is a 2000 British teen coming of age sex comedy film based on the Harry Enfield sketch Kevin the Teenager. The film was written by Dave Cummings and Harry Enfield and directed by Ed Bye. Enfield, Kathy Burke and Lo ...

''. One of Virgin Sun's

aircraft (G-VMED) was seen landing at

Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, ca-valencia, Aeroport d'Alacant-Elx Miguel Hernández), , is an international airport located about southwest of the city of Alicante and about e ...

doubling as

Ibiza Airport Ibiza Airport ( ca, Aeroport d'Eivissa, es, Aeropuerto de Ibiza) is the international airport serving the Balearic Islands of Ibiza and Formentera in Spain located southwest of Ibiza Town. In 2020, the airport handled 2.1 million passeng ...

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