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Virgin Balloon Flights
AntonAir
Company type Limited
Industry hot air balloon flights
Founded1994 (1994)
Headquarters,
Number of locations
148 launch sites in the UK, 3 in Italy
Area served
United Kingdom, Italy
OwnerKenneth Karlstrom
Website www.virginballoonflights.co.uk
A Virgin hot air balloon flying over Cambridge.

Virgin Balloon Flights, with headquarters in Telford, Shropshire, began flying hot air balloons in 1994 and its passengers are still flown in red and white balloons with the Virgin Group logo on the side of the balloon.

Virgin Balloon Flights owns and operate the largest passenger carrying balloon service in the United Kingdom[ citation needed] as well as the largest balloon fleet in the UK.[ citation needed] The company has over 100 launch sites throughout the United Kingdom[ citation needed] (including Crowborough, Shrewsbury and Castle Fraser), employs more than 22 pilots who carry out the balloon flights and is affiliated to the following organisations:

Since 2002, Virgin Balloon Flights has been the trading name for AirXcite Limited.

In 2006 it acquired a N-355 balloon manufactured by Ultramagic. This new balloon, that takes a 355,000 cu ft (10,100 m3) of air and can carry a basket with up to 16 passengers, replaced a smaller Cameron 340 balloon. [1]

Recently[ when?] Virgin Balloon Flights expanded to Italy via the sister company of AirXcite, Ballooning in Tuscany, also owned by Kenneth Karlstrom. It now has 3 launch sites in Tuscany ( Florence, Siena and Poggibonsi).

See also

References

  1. ^ Virgin Balloon Flights, Virgin Inflates fleet with Monster New Balloon Archived 12 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine

External links