V-Flyer had humble beginnings. In fact, for nearly six months after its initial creation in March 2003, it didn't even have a name - it was just an IP address. Originally publisher Pete Shaw created the site to support the most common questions about Virgin Atlantic on the FlyerTalk discussion boards. The most common request (and still one of the most popular), was 'What aircraft will I be on?'.

Starting with a pile of ACARS data of Virgin Atlantic aircraft movements, Pete built a query tool to address the problem. Whilst it couldn't magically come up with the aircraft schedule, it could at least give a percentage prediction of what type of aircraft or entertainment system would be used - and this proved very popular with visitors. Soon after, many more custom tools were written for the site and even a fledgling discussion forum appeared.

By November 2003, the site had clearly grown. It had also found a name - VirginFlyer. The implementation of a complete site re-design brought organisation to the rag-tag bunch of tools, and the Forum was replaced with a Snitz-based code to allow for the increasing demand from users. A mobile version of the most popular tools was launched on mobile.v-flyer.com.

Virgin Atlantic themselves had by this point started to take notice of our little site, and supported VirginFlyer with a feature in their own customer newsletter, iFly. The attention of Virgin Atlantic also brought the attention of Virgin Group, and to stay on their friendly side it was agreed that the site would change its name to V-Flyer to avoid any confusion with Virgin Group companies.

By the end of September 2004, it was clear the website had outgrown its design once more. Serving upwards of 50 thousand unique visitors per month, it needed an even more robust publishing engine. Publisher Pete Shaw started the project to re-write the code base, incorporating a custom Content Management System and rolling in many new site features.

By 2006 the site was suffering growing pains once more, and a complete re-write of code and a move of ISP brought about the site you see today. Now regularly serving over 200,000 users per month.

V-Flyer is owned by Web Editors Ltd, Registered in England & Wales No. 6297678. Oh, and don't worry, that doesn't mean Pete has sold out to some big corporation. Web Editors is Pete's company, and to keep all the books straight, V-Flyer reports all earnings and expenses through the company. I thank you.