Airline Fanatic

Virgin America came out with a new destination announcement today – they will fly three daily non stops from San Francisco to San Diego starting on February 18th of next year (increasing to five flights on March 9th). [Via Jaunted] While its great to see a new airline expanding to new cities, one has to wonder about the wisdom of VA’s decision to pick some of the busiest airports in the country.

Serving primary airports in each city they serve is actually a stated priority for VA CEO Fred Reid, as he discussed in his interview with Fast Company magazine. This is both good and bad for travelers. Its good for the obvious reason that you will actually fly to the airport you want to go to, unlike Skybus Airlines which sells tickets to “New York” while it actually flies to Newburgh, NY. On the other hand, Skybus wont have to worry about any delays coming out of Newburgh, whereas JFK is one of the most delayed airports in the country. In fact, Virgin operates out of several of the most delayed airports, including its home hub of San Francisco, Washington Dulles and New York JFK (though they aren’t as bad as JetBlue, which flies to 10 of the top 14 delayed airports).

Now when you handle only a handful of flights every day, this may not be such a big deal. As Virgin America grows however they will have to think more and more about the utilization of their aircraft on more than one route per day, and in the low cost carrier world that means quick turn around times at some of these busy airports. Every time a VA plane touches one of these delayed airports, there is a 30% chance (roughly) they wont get back off the ground again in time to make their next scheduled connection. Over time, this will continue to add up. And when your entire network consists of these heavily delayed airports, as Fred Reid would have us believe, the chance of massive delays across the airline increase with every flight.

In theory it’s nice to say you fly to each city’s primary airport, but when you consider the delays and additional headaches that come along with these big boys, you may want to think twice. Virgin has plenty of time to consider their growth strategy, and avoiding delays on their network should be on their list of top priorities.

Virgin America sent all of its eleVAte (VA’s frequent flier program) members an email this morning giving them advanced notice about a promotional flight they are throwing together with Victoria’s Secret. 

VA is throwing an extremely Virgineqsue event, without the typically creative Virgin title – Victoria’s Secret Supermodel PJ Party.  Two underwear models (Selita Ebanks and Miranda Kerr) will be on board this flight from New York’s JFK to LAX, and it will only happen once – November 28th on Flight 317.  Since I won’t be able to be on that flight (you know, the whole work thing) I wanted to let all my readers now about it instead.

Other than the beautiful bodies on board – who will most likely stay couped up in first class for the majority of the flight – there will be prizes, PJs and, according to the email, “more.”  Now that sounds exciting.  You can book your tickets to the flight here, last time I checked, it was still on $159 one way, which is a great fare even when there aren’t supermodels on board.

Oh, and don’t get any lofty ideas about joining the mile-high club on this flight, in typical Virgin America fashion this thing will be a media magnet, so there will be plenty of cameras on board to catch you in the act.

Fast CompanyMagazine just came out with their November issue, and inside I wasn’t surprised when I found an interview with Virgin America’s CEO: Fred Reid. Why was I not surprised? Fast Company is always interviewing people involved with “it” brands, and there is nothing hotter in the aviation world right now than Fred Reid and Virgin America. You can check out the mostly fluff piece over on Fast Company’s website.

Inside you’ll find mostly what would expect to see from Virgin and a new low cost carrier. The legacy carriers have terrible customer service, we improved on things a little bit from the way JetBlue operates, and added that little bit of Virgin flair that makes all of their companies special. Two things I found out about VA I didn’t know before: they will only fly to primary airports in the cities they serve. This means airports that are usually LCC favorites like Oakland (OAK), Long Beach (LGB), and Ft. Lauderdale (FLL), won’t see any red tails in the foreseeable future. Also, Reid plans to offer meals on his planes that cost $20! He thinks those able to afford first class will be able to expense it, and he is probably right, but I still find it hard to believe he can make airline food taste good enough to justify $20. We shall see though, after all, VA is part of the Virgin empire, and crazy stuff happens over there all the time.

In Scott McCartney’s The Middle Seat section today in the Wall Street Journal he takes a look at the ever increasing differences among low cost carriers (LCCs).  While at one time he claims everyone just tried to copy Southwest, differentiation is now the name of the game as low prices become common across all carriers.

Of course he hits on Virgin America, the supposedly-US-owned-but-everyone-knows-is-controlled-by-Richard-Branson upscale low cost airline, and how they offer premium services once you get on board.  I’ve tried to fly VA several times, but every time I’ve priced the trip (mostly between LA and New York) they’ve been several hundred dollars more expensive than legacy carrier Delta.  Between LA and San Francisco however they remain extremely competitive.

What boggles the mind however is why Scott spends so much time profiling Spirit Airlines.  Never have I seen such dishonest advertising as that spewed by Spirit.  They tout their $9 fares, which of course there is no chance of you actually being able to get because there is so little availability, but then neglect to tell you about how you are going to have to pay to check your bag, be able to fit in your seat, or even go for a glass of water!  They make their living bringing first time naive customers on board, but never have I heard of repeat business with their airline. 

Spirit’s CEO’s quote in the article shows us a lot about his attitudes towards customers: “We realize we’re either trendsetters or jerks, depending on your view of the world.”  Well from his perspective I’m sure he’s a trendsetter, he saves his company lots of money and shows the public really low fares, while making his real revenue selling them add-ons that should be included in the fare once they are already committed.  Anyone who has flown on Spirit knows them as jerks who falsely advertise rock bottom fares, but end up actually paying the same amount they would pay to any other carrier.