More than two years after Britain's Richard Branson took the initial steps to form a U.S. clone of Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin America last week filed paperwork with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The start-up carrier has obtained $177.3 million to fund its operations.

The carrier hopes to clear all its regulatory hurdles so that it is flying sometime in 2006. Although the DOT application describes a point-to-point network serving major "cosmopolitan" communities, similar to New York and San Francisco, the carrier has not ruled out partnering with a regional carrier. A company spokeswoman told Regional Aviation News that Virgin America is open to discussions with potential regional partners on the shape of future routes.

In its DOT filing, Virgin America said it hopes to have 17 Airbus 320s and 319s provide service to a number of top U.S. markets within its first year of operation. Other than operating out of San Francisco International Airport, the carrier did not identify any other markets.

In the U.S., Frontier Airlines [FRNT] and America West [LCC] are the only low-fare carriers using regional partners, primarily to feed their hub operations. Over the past two years, analysts have expected Virgin America to be set up similar to JetBlue Airways [JBLU] in its structure and customer-service approach. JetBlue has recently started flying the Embraer [ERJ] 190 on some routes in point-to-point service.

To launch Virgin America, two U.S. investment companies will each contribute slightly more than $44 million to capitalize the carrier. Mark Lanigan, of California-based Black Canyon Capital, will serve as Virgin America's chairman. New York-based Cyrus Capital Partners is the second investor. To comply with exiting U.S. ownership laws, Branson's group will contribute $29.8 million in equity and hold 25 percent of the voting stock. His firm will provide $131 million in early development loans, but the debt on launch will be reduced to $58.6 million.

In addition to the capital, Branson is licensing the "Virgin" trademark to the new carrier.

Former Delta Air Lines [DALQ] president Frank Reid, who joined the company more than a year ago, will continue to serve as the carrier's CEO.