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 – flights ...

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 co ...

, formed in 1998. The airline's main destinations were the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands. Virgin Sun's main bases were Manchester Airport and London Gatwick Airport.

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 b ...

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 (or a non-alcoholic version). After take off, Outbound guests were served with a meal of a bacon / veggie sausage sandwich on breakfast 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 bun. The term hot dog can refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener ( Vienna sausage) or a f ...

/ veggie sausage dog and potato wedges — 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 onio ...

s / sauces and an individual slice of chocolate gateau as a dessert. 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 southwestern China and north ...

and

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

was served in coffee shop style disposable cups 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 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 destinat ...

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 destinat ...

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 beca ...

. 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 ...

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 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