Virgin unveils renovated San Francisco terminal

Last week, Virgin America unveiled its dazzling, sustainable new home at San Francisco International Airport’s (SFO) Terminal 2 (T2) with a series of inaugural flights that celebrate the evolution of travel.

As the only California-based airline, Virgin America, along with sister company Virgin Galactic, is an anchor tenant at SFO’s new T2, which offers a unique design that includes a ‘Recompose’ lounge as a soothing oasis for flyers post-security, living-room-like gate areas, the best in local and organic dining, children’s play areas, elevated laptop work tables with outlets and WiFi, and the airline’s distinctive cabin ‘mood lighting’ featured at ticket counters and gates.

T2 aims to be the first LEED Gold-certified airport terminal in the U.S. Design elements include the utilization of natural light and modern ventilation systems that require 20 percent less energy, and skylights and clerestories which bring daylight into the space and significantly reduce electricity usage.

‘Hydration Stations’ allow flyers to fill reusable water bottles past security, reducing volume of waste. It is the first airport dining program in the country to recruit ‘Slow Food’ vendors, and will feature organic food vendors and require use of compostable utensils and containers.

Contractors recycled 90 percent of construction debris from the project, and the airport requires ongoing source separation of all recyclable solid waste to enable the attainment of 90 percent recycling by 2020, and even hybrid cars get preferential parking.