Virgin America made an interesting announcement yesterday with some route developments. First, service between San Francisco and Orange County is going away on May 26. My guess is that yields weren’t all that great on the route – United was already there and Southwest hopped onboard once Virgin announced service. So Virgin probably saw greener pastures in other markets. And those markets are Orlando and Toronto.
There aren’t really a whole lot of details on Toronto yet, as all that Virgin has done so far is apply to the DOT for authority to fly there, and the earliest service will start is this June. Not surprisingly, there will be one nonstop each from SFO and LAX. The former has service from Air Canada and United, and the latter has service from American and Air Canada.
Orlando will be Virgin’s second Florida destination after Fort Lauderdale was launched a few months ago. Orlando is also interesting since its a pure leisure market, while Virgin has traditionally been focusing on routes with strong business traffic.
San Francisco is the smaller of the two Orlando markets (a bit more than a third of the LAX market), and I think it also has the most logical schedule. There’s only one other player in the market, United, with a daily A320 roundtrip, and Virgin completely avoids them. United’s flight from SFO leaves at 3:15 pm, and the MCO-SFO flight leaves at 6:55 am the next day. Meanwhile, Virgin’s flights are at 9:50 am and 6:00 pm, respectively. I think that’s a smart move on Virgin’s part. Its also worth noting that the two airlines probably have different objectives here – Virgin is most likely focusing more on O&D, while United probably has SFO connections in mind.
But for Los Angeles, Virgin’s schedule competes with everyone else’s, though it is a bit harder to avoid competing flights (and do well) when there are already five nonstops total from American, Delta, and United. Virgin’s LAX-MCO flight departs at 8:25 am, five minutes after American’s morning departure. Meanwhile, the MCO-LAX flight departs at 7:15 pm, 15 minutes after United, and 25 minutes after Delta. That competition should explain why Virgin’s introductory fare on the route is $50 lower than SFO’s.
I’m really interested in how Virgin will promote this service, as I really think they have a good product for traveling families. They have a very strong in-flight entertainment product, and power at every seat to keep kids’ electronic toys charged for the entire five-hour flight.
So, Virgin keeps on truckin’. I’m interested in seeing their fourth quarter numbers. The DOT releases the results for all carriers on May 10, but hopefully Virgin will give us an early peek. Meanwhile, Virgin has said many times that it’s been examining Chicago as a market, but nothing has moved there. They’ve claimed that it’s been hard to negotiate for gate space, but I wonder if there are any other factors in play.
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10 bucks says they get trashed in Toronto.
I would like to try Virgin America at some point, but they do not serve my area (Texas). Have you flown with them?