"Strenuous objections to the DOT by Continental Airlines and other entities have now slowed the Virgin America certification. Seems they want to know just where Sir Richard Branson is lurking behind the scenes. It's that foreign control thing." ~The Boyd Group/ASRC, Inc.
The US limits the amount of foreign ownership in its domestic airlines to a maximum of 49%, with a maximum of 25% control. The DOT is looking into whether or not the Virgin name will be able to fly here because of the stake Richard Branson holds in the company. However, with Virgin America, Branson holds a minority stake, while a majority is held by a US investing group, VAI Partners LLC. Thus skirting the issue.
The possible future livery of Virgin America is pictured above and is courtesty of Aerosite
VA would like to have 17 aircraft in service after its first year of service, with 15 of the 17 being Airbus A320s. Their service will be only transcontinental at this point. Despite the HQ being in San Francisco, Virgin America will not be like a Frontier in the sense of keeping a large hub airport. Virgin does not want to put too much importance on one airport. They do not want more than 25 to 30 per cent of departures at one airport.
Above information provided from The Boyd Group~ Aviation Planning
As the topic heats up even more, D/FW airport is telling the DOT to give Virgin America the green light in the hopes of courting the airline in the future.
[Virgin America] listed 35 airports, including D/FW, as potential destinations. The airline has not said how often it would fly, only that its first route would go from San Francisco to New York. The request for certification has been criticized by other legacy airlines, including Fort Worth-based American and Houston-based Continental, and the two largest pilots associations.
"If Virgin America has video and audio on-demand or even live TV, that could create a huge sucking sound in Terminals A, B and C, at least on the routes that Virgin America flies," Harteveldt said.
Looks like the legacy carriers are nervous.
Virgin AmericaUnderstand more by reading about Southwest Airlines, Monarch Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airlines.
» Stephen Colbert, Richard Branson, and Really Good PR from TopLeadGenerators
One of my late night TV habits is watching "The Colbert Report", a faux conservative knock-off of the popular Fox News program, "The O'Reilly Factor". Stephen Colbert is a great comedian, and his spoofing of the Fox News p... [Read More]
Tracked on: August 14, 2007 10:33 AM | Permalink to Trackback