The Lowe Down
August 2007
Virgin America (VA) begins service this month with Airbus 320 aircraft equipped with black leather seats in First Class and white leather seats in Economy. On board their planes, passengers are guests, purple plastic replaces a curtain between classes, electronic music plays while you board, and gulp, many of the crew have never worked for an airline before.
Virgin is certainly going to take an enormous bite of the United Airlines (UA) lunch. Based in San Francisco, where domestic US airfares are higher than anywhere else (except NYC) basing themselves in this tech industry laden region was a shrewd move. Focusing on the west and east coast markets is also a shrewd move. (sorry, I don’t think purple plastic will go down well in Ohio or Kansas).
The airline business itself is a bulls eye for complaints, and unlike any other on earth, one that is universally hated by customers.
JetBlue also had a nice fanfare when they opened, but with recent flightmares involving passengers being stuck on planes for up to eight hours, who knows how long it will be before passengers will see the planes of Virgin American and noses will wrinkle with the same amount of scorn.
So, as the first Virgin plane takes to the skies August 8th, good luck, VA.
www.virginamerica.com