Yesterday, Virgin America announced new service to Boston. There will be three LAX roundtrips and two SFO roundtrips, both operated by A319s. I found the LAX-BOS route specifically interesting because JetBlue decided earlier this year to not fly the route.
The slogan for the new service is “Another Revolution is Coming to Boston.” Virgin is going along with the theme, it seems, as the first flights to LAX is 1775 and the first from SFO is 1776. The numbering seems intentional since the numbers change after the first flight.
Now there is some competition on each route from American, United, and JetBlue, and I checked into the details on the day Virgin is starting service, February 12 using Boston’s timetable. American (3 757s) and United (2 757s) both fly to LAX, and JetBlue flies to Long Beach (2 320s). American (2 757s) and United (3 757s, 1 319) also fly to SFO, and JetBlue flies to Oakland (1 320).
I was talking to Ben from One Mile at a Time about this, and he did bring up an interesting point. Apparently United cannot fly BOS-SFO using an A319 during parts of the winter due to strong headwinds. United’s A319s are powered by IAE engines, and Virgin uses CFM engines. According to this document, the CFM-powered A319s do get better range, but I wonder if some fuel stops might ever be needed on Virgin’s part.
I think Virgin America has some potential to take some traffic away from the other carriers on these routes due to some of the services it offers. For example, according to this press release the airline will have inflight Internet in all its aircraft by the second quarter. To compete in that area, American would have to throw a 767-200 on the route.
There are some things about the legacy carriers, though, that might make business travelers want to stick with them, and I think the biggest is the frequent flyer program. Yes, Virgin has made progress with Elevate, but American’s AAdvantage and United’s Mileage Plus have the power of Oneworld and Star Alliance, respectively. JetBlue doesn’t have an alliance, but it does have more destinations, so points can be used in more places.
Anyway, let’s see how it goes for Virgin!
B6 frequently has refueling stops in the winter due to strong headwinds for west coast bound cities. Their newer a/c (700 series tail numbers) are much lighter and do not require tech stops nearly as much as some of their older a/c. United could do it, just with a stop like B6.
Hi, Tim – thanks very much for providing that insight. I had never heard that before!