Virgin America could be flying passengers as early as this summer after the world's largest airline (in passenger volume) dropped their objections to the tentative approval of Virgin America's operating license. American Airlines said that they had already voiced their objections to the VA's ownership. 
American has been fighting VA since December 2005 after questioning whether Virgin America was controlled by U.S. citizens or by British citizen Richard Branson. Many other airlines including Delta and Continental shared those feelings.
Little has been heard in objections from Continental in the last two months. A sign that could mean the airline is dropping their objections too.
The airline that could be hurt the most, United Airlines which has a hub in San Francisco, has yet to speak up recently too.
American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said in an email: "It is fair to say that we had previously made all our points and concerns known in our original filing and it would serve no purpose to restate those again."
Virgin America still has to make some changes before a licence will be issued. CEO Fred Reid will be on the chopping block. However, do not feel bad for Fred Reid, he will probably have a golden airline parachute waiting for him.
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I'm curious if airline ownership even matters now, particularly with the "open-skies" deal with Europe, as any European airline will be able to fly to any point in the US and vice versa. I realize this situation is different because Virgin America will be operating in the US as a US airline, but I think the US carriers don't want to have to bump up service to compete Virgin's.
Posted by: InFlight | June 1, 2007 12:48 AM | Permalink to Comment