Comments on: Across the Aisle from Virgin America CEO David Cush

By: Virgin America Finally Comes to Chicago - >> The Cranky Flier

Virgin America Finally Comes to Chicago - >> The Cranky Flier — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:47:00 +0000

[...] America hasn’t been shy about telling people that it’s wanted to go to Chicago for a long time but it had plenty of problems. First of all, it didn’t want to go to Midway and only wanted [...]

By: Sean O'Neill

Sean O'Neill — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:50:46 +0000

Cranky,
You wrote:
I was surprised that he didn’t know the answers to some basic questions like how much the LAX renovation cost or even what year the airline was expecting to reach profitability.

I agree! And that also makes me somewhat suspicious that he got the facts precise when it comes to Main Cabin Select.

I’m also surprised that code-sharing without official code-sharing is in accordance with the agreed upon rules of the international aviation game.
–Sean

By: aviators99

aviators99 — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:05:39 +0000

Sorry, error above. It should be 638, 628, and 529.

By: aviators99

aviators99 — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:00:32 +0000

By the way, WiFi is now on 3 planes: 638, 628, and 521.

By: eponymous coward

eponymous coward — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:00:38 +0000

Apparently, VX is applying to add SFO-SNA< as another route.

By: Robin Johnson

Robin Johnson — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:23:12 +0000

As an Australian, I’m hoping for a RTW tie-up allowing V Australia – Virgin America – Virgin Atlantic – Virgin Blue, to compete with the oneWorld and Star Alliances. Virgin America First class and international Upper class is a great combination. I could do Sydney-LA-SF-Boston-London-HK-Sydney plus my domestic Australian add-on!
bmi would add useful UK and Europe points.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:31:04 +0000

I travel LHR – SAN a lot and theres no direct flight from anywhere in europe. I think a virgin american/virgin atlantic codeshare would add more competition to the route. I think the same applies to SEA and LAS. Could be more interesting if Virgin end up with any of BMIs european network.

By: CF

CF — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:34:43 +0000

RJTame – In any decent executive suite, there should be nervousness, because you always should be concerned about a new competitor. That being said, a small airline that has publicly announced it won’t be growing anymore for a couple years is not going to make it to the top of the list. Still, it better be ON the list.

Marcus – The V Australia guys were there as well, and it was made pretty clear that V Australia and Virgin America would feed passengers to each other. No codeshare has been announced but it will happen without questions, according to the people there. Other than that, there isn’t much. They’ll work with Virgin Atlantic, but they really don’t have much feed to offer. I mean, they could take passengers through SFO and send them to Seattle or San Diego, but that’s about it. Virgin Atlantic flies to all the other cities that Virgin America flies.

By: Marcus Nyman

Marcus Nyman — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:38:56 +0000

Good inverview. I’m also curious about their connection plans with partner airlines to increase their footprint. Did he say anything about that?

By: RJTame

RJTame — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:31:29 +0000

Does anyone think there is nervousness about Virgin America in the exec suites of AA, UA, DL, NW, CO? It appears that Virgin is trying to start from the product and work out an airline that people want to fly.

The legacy guys appear to continue along the path of their size driving traffic regardless of how bad their product is. I can’t see a legacy becoming a Virgin, so I think we all have to hope that economics and timing don’t conspire to kill Virgin before they’ve had the chance to make the impact they clearly could.