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Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc., the space tourism company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, said it remains on track to resume space tourism flights in fall 2026 and is exploring the building of a spaceport in southern Italy to support growing demand.
During a May 15 earnings call, CEO Michael Colglazier said ticket prices for its next-generation Delta Class flights could exceed $600,000 per seat, a significant jump from the $450,000 price tag offered to customers in 2023.
“Our sales remain paused, but we expect to open tranches of sales reservations in the first quarter of 2026 as we approach the start of commercial service,” the Tustin-based company said in a regulatory filing.
Colglazier said in a conference call that as of the end of March, 675 customers were already on the manifest to fly with new Delta spacecraft, which will take customers to the edge of outer space.
First-quarter revenue was $500,000, compared to $2 million in the first quarter of 2024, with the decrease driven by the pause in commercial spaceflights, the company said in its earnings release.
The company drove down its operating expenses, reporting a quarterly net loss of $84 million, narrower than the $102 million net loss a year earlier.
Investors liked what they heard, sending the shares up as much as 98% to as high as $6.64 in the subsequent trading session. At press time, the shares traded at $3.65 and an $151 million market cap.
The shares are still down 25% year to date; after the company went public in 2019, the market cap tapped $12 billion in 2021.
Possible Launch Site in Italy
The company estimates the global market for space tourism to be as high as 300,000 potential flyers, a figure that it expects to continue to climb.
Virgin Galactic is midway through a feasibility study looking at an air force base in Italy’s southern Puglia area that has been designated as a spaceport region, according to Colglazier.
Colglazier said Italy has provided “good government support” for the possible spaceport, which would be the company’s second after the current facility in New Mexico.
A spaceport is used by the company’s airplanes that take the spacecraft aloft for the suborbital flights.
The space tourism flights will follow a break of about two years as the company gets the new, 6-passenger Delta spaceships into shape. The tourist missions will be proceeded by space research flights in the summer of next year.
“We do not, of course, expect every part of the program to be executed exactly as planned,” Colglazier cautioned investors as he discussed the spaceships.
Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) says it’s targeting 125 flights a year.
The company said its cash position remains “strong,” with cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $547.6 million as of March 31, down from $627.9 million on Dec. 31.