Virgin America continues some serious bleeding

[ualdriver]

With all due respect (and a serious question...), why is Southwest absent from your analysis? Do they not impact yields in the Bay area and Denver?

Fwiw, I don't UAL's domestic yield is nearly as big of a problem/issue as UAL's international yields. For that you can blame about everyone else except the LCC's. At least that is what many of the analysts state.

S

Because I think SWA prices their product rationally. Virgin America obviously is not. Minus 30% margins? I mean, c'mon- WTF is that? We have enough problems to deal with (all of us) in this industry than to deal with a competitor who's willing to slash fares in a desperate attempt to gain a foothold in markets that are already saturated enough. If I was a SWA pilot, I wouldn't be anamored with VA either because they're having to deal with the ridiculous fare wars VA has sponsored in the Bay Area as well.

I also have a special place in my heart for pilots who flagrantly undercut the going rate so I wasn't a big fan of SWA in my early years at UAL, either. Their pilot compensation packages kind of sucked IMO and it sucked that they were undercutting the rest of us who were trying to maintain high wages, pensions, and great work rules. I remember that there were lots of comparisons to JetBlue and SWA during our bankruptcy proceedings that IMO hurt us. It seems as if finally SWA is trying to hold a bar up. Ten years ago IMO it was different.

He11, everything international is down, UAL or otherwise. Just in the Pacific, Al Nippon, Japan Airlines, Singapore, Cathay, etc., are all cutting capacity 10%. Business travellers are not ponying up the money for premium cabin service, which is our bread and butter. And now to add insult to injury, fuel prices are creeping up. I would agree with you that blaming a LCC for these particular problems would be apples and oranges.

So it's kind of annoying that we in this industry have to deal with all kinds of problems like the above, and ON TOP OF THAT have to deal with these predatory carriers that whip out their butter knives and start hacking away at us.

 

[Yuppyguppy]

bye bye VA...

 

[The Victors]

With all due respect (and a serious question...), why is Southwest absent from your analysis? Do they not impact yields in the Bay area and Denver?

Fwiw, I don't UAL's domestic yield is nearly as big of a problem/issue as UAL's international yields. For that you can blame about everyone else except the LCC's. At least that is what many of the analysts state.

S

because swa pilots are the highest paid narrow body pilots in the industry. The FA's at swa make more than VA captains. That's pathetic!

 

[Mud]

If that's true then that is ridiculous. No FA in the world is worth 100K a year.

 

[OurMoney1]

Dont care if you fly boxes or people...VA is an assualt on cockpit wages. Virgin America bleeding out and disappearing would be good for our collective whole.

 

[B727Driver]

If that's true then that is ridiculous. No FA in the world is worth 100K a year.

The F/A's that make that kind of money work more than their published lines. Some work 2 lines or pick up trips to bring their schedules paying 150 trips or more. Without this ability to modify their schedules, yes they would make considerably less.

 

[Draginass]

VA should go into the dustbin of airline history. Of course, after all the bankruptcies, so should have US Airways. That would have at least taken some capacity out of the system and allowed the healthier players to have a chance.

 

[CaptSeth]

Having been without meaningful employment for almost 15 months now, I would feel uncomfortable wishing for something that would result in additional job losses.

I feel extremely comfortable telling VA pilots that it is their duty to their families, themselves, and the profession to unionize and negotiate a contract that yields appropriate wages and working conditions for their occupation. And sooner rather than later.

 

[PHXFLYR]

The F/A's that make that kind of money work more than their published lines. Some work 2 lines or pick up trips to bring their schedules paying 150 trips or more. Without this ability to modify their schedules, yes they would make considerably less.

How do you do that ?


PHXFLYR

 

[vixin]

They dont have 30/7. Some make more then 100K. Heck on charters the FO is usually the lowest paid crew member. Some senior mamas make 150K doing mostly charters. Plus they just voted in a better contract with better rules. They have somethings in their contract you can only shake your head at. Like flipping their own trip at the begining of the month for double time. They put it in then take it back for double...BS if you ask me, but its in the contract. Plus double for this and triple for that. I just flew with an FA that was at 240 trips and had a three day that paid 58 tfp. She only had a handful of days off for the month though.