Virgin America took another step forward today by starting service from Los Angeles to New York. You might remember a few weeks ago when Virgin America’s maiden flight between New York and San Francisco captured the imagination of the media (and this particular blogger), and while their first flight from LAX to Kennedy didn’t garner the same type of buzz, it does mark a major move for the new upstart airline.

Virgin America has positioned itself as the airline that offers something totally new and different for travelers. While that might be true, they couldn’t really take on all those old-fashioned airlines until they started challenging them on major routes such as LAX to JFK. In the near future, we should see Virgin America hitting other major markets such as Chicago, as well. It should be very interesting to track the effect Virgin has both immediately and in the long-run as it becomes more of a presence in the skies over the U.S.

Oh, just so you don’t think the flight took off without any fanfare, Richard Branson was at LAX to eat breakfast, celebrate, and tell the world why Virgin America is the only way to fly: “Virgin America has taken the spirit of the Virgin brand and is forging new ground in America…

People want to be entertained while traveling, and these planes offer the best entertainment package I’ve seen.” (From the LA Daily News)