IT’S one of the world’s most-loved airlines but it’s about to vanish forever.

Consistently credited as being one of the US’s favourite airlines, Virgin America is set to take its final flight today before it is taken over by Alaska Air as part of a $US2.6 billion ($A3.4 billion) deal.

The two final flights will be Virgin America Flight 1182 which is scheduled to depart San Francisco at 9.30pm, and Virgin America Flight 1948 is due to fly to Los Angeles at 9.32pm local time.

“We’re planning to delight our guests flying on these last two flights with a few surprises,” Alaska Airlines said. It’s believed a special in-flight safety video performance will be among them.

Diehard fans of the airline are also planning their own celebrations.

Usually passengers love to hate airlines, but not Virgin — the airline had a 7/10 rating on Skytrax and was famous for its safety video.

Dismayed travellers have flooded social media to pay tribute to the carrier.