Startup airline Virgin America won final approval on Friday to take to the skies in the US.
Federal regulators approved the company's revised plan to operate US-based commercial flights after the company made numerous concessions, including replacing its chief executive, to allay concerns about the foreign ownership stake of Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group Ltd.
Service is expected to start this summer with flights from San Francisco International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
In a statement, the US Transportation Department said Virgin's revised plan, filed in January by Burlingame, California-based Virgin America, is now in compliance with laws that limit foreign control of domestic air carriers.
That includes company ownership rules that cap foreign control of a US airline at 25 percent of voting shares. Virgin also agreed to replace CEO Fred Reid, the former Delta Air Lines Inc president hired by British billionaire Branson, founder of London-based Virgin Atlantic Airways.
The DOT said it concluded that replacing Reid with a CEO not affiliated with Branson's Virgin Group would alleviate worries about the airline's independence.
Other DOT conditions include requiring US directors on Virgin America's board to approve a trustee to represent Virgin Group's 25 percent stake and reporting to federal regulators any planned loans to the US carrier.
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