virgin balloon flights type limited industry hot air balloon flights founded 1997 1997 headquarters telford shropshire united kingdom number of locations 148 launch sites in the uk 3 in italy area served united kingdom italy owner kenneth 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 1987 and its passengers are still flown in red and white balloons with the virgin group logo emblazoned on the side of the balloon . virgin balloon flights own and operate the largest passenger carrying balloon service in the united kingdom as well as the largest balloon fleet in the uk . the company has over 100 launch sites throughout the united kingdom including crowborough shrewsbury and castle fraser employs 24 pilots who carry out the balloon flights and is affiliated to the following organisations civil aviation authority caa british balloon & airship club bbac british association of balloon operators babo since 1997 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 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 and is looking to expand . see also edit hot air ballooning civil aviation authority united kingdom list of civil aviation authorities references edit virgin balloon flights virgin inflates fleet with monster new balloon external links edit official website take flight over beautiful shropshire 1 review of a hampshire balloon flight 2 hot air balloon flight over suffolk review 3 v t e virgin group assets lifestyle active balloon flights books care casino experience days games gaming health bank pure voucher electric racing wines travel america atlantic vacations virgin australia holdings australia regional virgin samoa tigerair australia cruises galactic holidays travel city direct hotels chicago limited edition natirar necker roof gardens ulusaba limobike oceanic trains west coast east coast music megastores records virgin emi v festival money green fund money uk money australia media connect media ireland mobile uk virgin mobile australia canada chile france india poland south africa usa produced radio uk france canada toronto montreal vancouver calgary edmonton winnipeg london on italy dubai turkey jordan thailand virgin hitz eazy fm lebanon former comics festival north america festival australia heaven ou fm racing f1 radio ottawa uk radio classic groove xtreme v2 records virgin.net defunct brides cars charter cinemas digital digital help drinks cola vodka electronics energy express films interactive limousines little red megastores uk media television money us nigeria northern rock radio free sun trains crosscountry trains expresscoach vie virginware people richard branson nik powell other losing my virginity timeline of richard branson s business ventures unite charity virgin earth challenge ds virgin racing category commons this article about transport in the united kingdom is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title virgin balloon flights & oldid 740454812 categories balloons aircraft virgin groupcompanies based in shropshiretelfordtransport companies of the united kingdombritish companies established in 1987united kingdom transport stubshidden categories all stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 21 september 2016 at 05 03 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view