A New Virgin Coming To Jfk
- Thread starter AAquila
- Start date
If Virgin USA comes to JFK, as its base, it sounds like a copy of JetBlue to me. Flying 30 or 50 A320 or 737-800 to Florida, California, the Caribean or the Midwest has been done. I think Boston or washington Dulles would be a better base for Virgin USA in the east. Basing such an operation on the west coast since no new low fare airline is based out there. San Francisco here come Virgin.
jimntx
Veteran
Whatever I may think about the best place to base Virgin America, Sir Richard has already publicly narrowed it down to NY or SF. As JFK777 said, New York to popular tourist destinations at low cost has been done. And, judging from their apparent customer loyalty, JetBlue will be hard to beat at JFK. What could VA offer to attract customers from JB?
Yes, AA has a major presence there, but it's not really in the domestic market, discount or otherwise. AA's domestic service into and out of JFK primarily supports their Int'l ops there. Considering the discounts that AA (and the others) offer to "fly us domestically and conveniently connect to our Int'l service", could VA offer a discounted fare low enough to get sufficiently below the AA connection price to make it worth having to reclaim luggage and schlep it to another terminal, then re-check? Granted, VA flies out of JFK to London, but are 3 Int'l flights/day sufficient attraction to build a whole domestic operation around?
My problem with San Francisco. It would be horrendously expensive for SF-based crews. 4 classmates of mine were initially thrilled to be assigned to SFO, but after finally finding a 2 bedroom in Daly City for $2200/mo, the bloom was off the SF-based rose--and that was almost 4 years ago. Also, if the constant flight delays and costs of flying into SFO ran off the King of LCCs, Southwest, how does VA plan to make a better go of it? OAK belongs to SW, and San Jose is too inconvenient for a number of Bay area passengers.
But then, I've already written to Sir Richard regarding his failure to consult with me before narrowing his choices.
Yes, AA has a major presence there, but it's not really in the domestic market, discount or otherwise. AA's domestic service into and out of JFK primarily supports their Int'l ops there. Considering the discounts that AA (and the others) offer to "fly us domestically and conveniently connect to our Int'l service", could VA offer a discounted fare low enough to get sufficiently below the AA connection price to make it worth having to reclaim luggage and schlep it to another terminal, then re-check? Granted, VA flies out of JFK to London, but are 3 Int'l flights/day sufficient attraction to build a whole domestic operation around?
My problem with San Francisco. It would be horrendously expensive for SF-based crews. 4 classmates of mine were initially thrilled to be assigned to SFO, but after finally finding a 2 bedroom in Daly City for $2200/mo, the bloom was off the SF-based rose--and that was almost 4 years ago. Also, if the constant flight delays and costs of flying into SFO ran off the King of LCCs, Southwest, how does VA plan to make a better go of it? OAK belongs to SW, and San Jose is too inconvenient for a number of Bay area passengers.
But then, I've already written to Sir Richard regarding his failure to consult with me before narrowing his choices.
