Virgin America launched its airline, Wednesday with the first inaugural flight from New York’s JFK airport to its home base in San Francisco being delayed by 50 minutes due to freak flooding.

The flooding caused by a freak once in ten year storm, caused Sir Richard Branson to run late and up to 50% of its passengers to miss the flight all together. In the end the service from New York to San Francisco did however make up 20 minutes, making the flight only 30 minutes late.

Virgin America fares are set at a $44 one way base fare between San Francisco and Los Angeles and $139 between San Francisco and New York, with first class tickets on the New York San Francisco sector being set at $389 one way.

Virgin Americas future plan is to operate a fleet of 100 planes throughout the US, and will capitalize on transcontinental flights as it is the only major airline to have a home base in San Francisco, which Virgin America expect to push very hard.

See Virgin America's Website for additional information

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