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Virgin America
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article or section contains information about a planned or expected new airline in the United States.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as development continues, the launch date approaches, and as more information becomes available. |
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| Virgin America | ||
|---|---|---|
| IATA VX |
ICAO VUS |
Callsign n/a |
| Founded | 2004 | |
| Hubs | San Francisco International | |
| Fleet size | 11 | |
| Destinations | 0 | |
| Parent company | VAI Partners LLC/Virgin Group | |
| Headquarters | Burlingame, California | |
| Key people | Fred Reid (CEO) Donald J. Carty (Chairman) |
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| Website: www.virginamerica.com | ||
Virgin America is a new U.S. airline that expects to begin flying in 2007. The airline's stated aim is to provide low-fare, high-quality service. Virgin America's plans to begin operations have been delayed by the United States Department of Transportation.
San Francisco International Airport will be Virgin America's principal base of operations. The airline has announced it intends to offer service to six cities (San Francisco, New York-JFK, Los Angeles-LAX, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Washington-IAD) within the first nine months of launch.[1] CEO Fred Reid has said that the airline's initial route will be San Francisco (SFO) to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). Reid has also said that the airline's focus will be on "long-haul point-to-point service between major metropolitan cities on the Eastern and West Coast seaboards".[2]
CEO Fred Reid is the former president of Delta Air Lines. Donald J. Carty, former head of American Airlines parent AMR Corporation and Chairman of Porter Airlines, will also serve as Chairman of Virgin America.[3]
Virgin America, though the brainchild of British entrepreneur Richard Branson (Virgin Group), will be a U.S. airline. By law, a U.S. airline must be owned by a majority (75% of equity) of U.S. citizens and must be under the "actual control" of U.S. citizens;[4] The DOT ruled in late December 2006 that Virgin America "tentatively" did not meet these requirements. Virgin America still hopes the Department of Transportation will find that it meets these requirements. VAI Partners LLC will own 75% of the capital stock and will appoint two-thirds of the voting members of the board of directors. Virgin America is separate from Virgin Atlantic and as such is under no obligation to work with Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Blue, Virgin Nigeria, Virgin Galactic or any other companies that share the Virgin brand name.
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In early 2004, Virgin Group announced its intent to start a new, U.S.-based low-fare airline it was calling "Virgin USA." After considering Boston, Washington, D.C., New York and San Francisco as headquarters for the new airline, it announced on June 4, 2004, that its flight operations center would be located at San Francisco International Airport and its corporate headquarters would be located in New York City.[5] At the time, Virgin USA expected to be flying by mid-2005.
On June 16, 2004, the airline was officially named "Virgin America." It also announced its U.S. management team and that its fleet would consist of Airbus planes.[6] Although plans seemed to be moving along well, the new airline had trouble finding U.S. investors willing to gamble on a new airline, given the state of the U.S. airline industry. Virgin America announced in April 2005 that it was delaying its first flights until 2006 at the earliest.[7]
On December 8, 2005, Virgin America announced that it had secured $177.3 million in funding and submitted the required U.S. DOT certificate application. The company also announced that its headquarters would be moved from New York City to Burlingame, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area and that regulatory approval would take from six to 12 months.[8] However, the application was denied by the Department of Transportation on December 27, 2006.[9]
Virgin then proposed that the airline be restructured, with the voting shares held by a trust approved by the DOT, and with only two Virgin Group directors on the eight-person board. In addition to removing the Virgin Group's veto and consent rights, Virgin America said that it would consider removing Richard Branson from the board, and possibly even dropping the "Virgin" brand entirely.[10] The company was also prepared to remove CEO Fred Reid "should the DOT (US Department of Transportation) find that necessary."[11]
On March 20, 2007, The U.S. DOT tentatively cleared Virgin America to fly. However in order to get full permission Virgin America must still change its business structure by enacting several reforms specified by the DOT, these include replacing Fred Reid as CEO and by limiting the influence of Virgin Group over Virgin America's operations.[12]
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California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently voiced his support for the new airline by asking for a swift review of its application. The Governor notes that Virgin America will create as many as 1,700 jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area.[13]
Additional support for the airline has come from the mayors of several Bay Area cities, California state representatives, Bay Area businesses and business leaders, and several airport authorities including New York/New Jersey, Las Vegas, Denver, Pittsburgh, Raleigh/Durham, Orlando, Miami, Dallas/Fort Worth and San Francisco.
Virgin America plans to create as many as 3,000 jobs throughout the U.S. However, through the efforts of some national aviation labor unions (chiefly the Air Line Pilots Association) and U.S.-based "legacy" airlines (led by Houston-based Continental Airlines) the review of Virgin America's DOT certificate application was prolonged. The opponents' strategy was to try to block or delay approval by claiming that Virgin America will not be under U.S. ownership or control, which in fairness is questionable. This strategy appears to have worked. By filing motions that Virgin America's responses to inquiry were not sufficient to prove that the airline is a "U.S. citizen," the application opponents urged the DOT to require Virgin America to produce additional documentation.[14]
Beyond the initial SFO/JFK service, Virgin America plans to add Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas within nine months of operation. Other possible future destinations Virgin America has identified include Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Nashville, Newark, New Orleans, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Providence, Portland, Ore., Raleigh-Durham, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Jose, Calif., Sarasota, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa and West Palm Beach.[1]
It is thought that Virgin America will compete with United Airlines and American Airlines (legacy carriers that provide significant long-haul domestic service from San Francisco) and to a lesser extent with Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways (low-cost carriers that serve the nearby Oakland and San Jose airports). Virgin America is likely to implement a customer loyalty program (frequent-flyer program).[citation needed]
The company has announced that its fleet will consist of 34 Airbus A319 and A320-214 airliners (19 purchased, 15 leased) that will bear the Virgin logo.[5] Virgin America received their first A320 on February 24, 2006.
Virgin America is also soliciting the public's help to name their airplanes; [15] On October 11, 2006, the first airplane was christened Jefferson Airplane after the San Francisco band. Former lead singer Grace Slick christened the plane along with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Virgin America's in-flight experience will include: the largest seatback TVs of any U.S. airline, free television shows and a small selection of free games (customers will have the option to pay for movies and a larger selection of video games), an assortment of food items (some of which will be included in the fare), at least 32 inches of legroom, and modern, 1.5-inch-thick seats manufactured by Recaro.[2] Panasonic Avionics Corporation and other partners will supply the in-flight entertainment hardware.[16]
In late February 2007, the airline announced that it would lease some of its fleet to other carriers on a short-term basis.[17]
The Virgin America fleet consists of the following aircraft as of February 2007:[18]
| Aircraft | Total | Passengers (First/Economy) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A319 | 2 (6 orders) |
8/110 | |
| Airbus A320 | 8 (8 orders) |
8/138 |
- ^ a b Virgin America Identifies First Six Destinations; Announces Further 40 Cities Under Consideration, Virgin America, January 31, 2007.
- ^ a b "On the Record: Fred Reid," The San Francisco Chronicle, March 19, 2006.
- ^ "Virgin America Appoints Donald J. Carty Chairman of its Board of Directors," Virgin America press release, February 6, 2006.
- ^ See "Actual Control of U.S. Air Carriers" (Supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking), 71 FR 26425, May 5, 2006.
- ^ a b "SFO Lands New Carrier Virgin USA — 1,500 Jobs; Airline Sets Sights On Low-fare Market; Corporate Center To Be Based In N.Y.," The San Francisco Chronicle, June 5, 2004.
- ^ "Virgin To Buy Airbus Airplanes; Branson Names Carrier; Executive Lineup Announced," The San Francisco Chronicle, June 16, 2004.
- ^ "Start Of Virgin America Delayed; Branson's Airline Apparently Needs More Investors," The San Francisco Chronicle, April 9, 2005.
- ^ "Taking To The Air: Low-fare Startup Virgin America Says It Has The Funding To fly," The San Francisco Chronicle, December 9, 2005.
- ^ "Virgin America gets the no-go," The San Francisco Chronicle, December 28, 2006.
- ^ "Virgin Group makes concessions to get Virgin America flying," Air Transport World, January 19, 2007.
- ^ Aviation Week and Space Technology, January 22, 2007, p. 16.
- ^ United States Department of Transportation ruling
- ^ Letter from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to Deputy U.S. Secretary of Transportation, April 20, 2006.
- ^ See "Virgin America Inc. - Certificate - Interstate Scheduled Air Transportation", U.S. DOT Docket OST-2005-23307.
- ^ see www.nameourplanes.com
- ^ "Virgin America Names Panasonic as Lead Hardware Supplier for New Airline's In-flight Entertainment", Virgin America press release, May 2, 2006.
- ^ Virgin America says leasing its planes to others, Reuters, February 23, 2007.
- ^ Airbus Orders and Deliveries. Set "Customer" to "Virgin America" and see the "Aircraft in Operation" figure.
- Virgin America Official website
- V-Flyer Customer created community site
- Unofficial blog of the Virgin Group
| Virgin Group | |
|---|---|
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| Airlines, Flights & Travel | America | Atlantic | Balloon Flights | Blue | Pacific Blue | Polynesian Blue | Express | Galactic | Holidays | Limited Edition Hotels | Limobike | Limousines | Nigeria | Trains | Vacations | TheTrainLine | Blue Holidays |
| Publishing and Entertainment | Artemis Records | Books | Comics | Interactive | Music | ouï fm | Play | Radio Asia | Radio Free | Records | V2 Records | V Festival UK, North America, Australia |
| Retail | Brides | Megastore | Spa | Ware |
| Richard Branson | Richard Branson | Richard Branson's business ventures |
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