Virgin America on the Freedom certificat

[big dog1]

Anyone else heard these rumors about Richard Branson using the soon to be empty Freedom certificate and the cheaper than dirt MAG labor to start his newly DOT approved Virgin America low cost carrier? Word on the street is that Jonathan has visited both Toulouse(Airbus), and Seattle. There is a photo of N501MJ(CRJ-700) at the Boeing plant in Everett Washington on Airliners.net. Was this a company chartered flight? Jonathan and Branson are still big buddies from Jonathan's Virgin Express days in Belgium.

 

[Pee_nuss]

Everett huh? Must want wide bodies.....


Mesa with 777's priceless....

nuss

 

[Beantown]

There is a photo of N501MJ(CRJ-700) at the Boeing plant in Everett Washington on Airliners.net. Was this a company chartered flight?

It was out there getting painted white. Nice rumor though.
-Bean

 

[phantom122]

Mesa with 777's priceless....

They'll probably agree to fly them for $ 25.99/hr. Because "times are tough"

 

[generaltso]

Isn't it funny that Mesa paints its planes white, just in case they have to whore themselves out to any new airlines.

 

[General Lee]

How did Virgin Express do in Europe when they went up against a lot of Low Fare Carriers? They tanked. How did they do in Australia with only one large Major and no LCC's? They did well. How many LCC's are in the US of A? A lot more than Europe. Go for it Richard!!!

Bye Bye--General Lee

 

[stillaboo]

Isn't it funny that Mesa paints its planes white, just in case they have to whore themselves out to any new airlines.

Or they might need a spare since they plan on operating -700's for UA and U (and already do for HP). Wouldn't look good to show up for a HPX flight with a UA branded aircraft.

-Boo!

 

[generaltso]

I've travelled on Mesa twice and both times was in a plain white CRJ 50 seater

 

[LearLove]

Yep, first an Albino CRJ seater now a 70 seater. I've seen Mesa show up for U flights in PHL and LGA (back when Mesa was doing LGA, Summer 2000) with the MESA airlines purple and yellow CRJ. Now they have the albino thing to interchange. Guess the same thing with the 70 seaters.

Chautauqua has the same thing going with the white fuselage and blue tail ERJ they interchange with delta and U flying and whoever else they fly for.

Here's a joke one of my Mesa buds told me the other day:

Your in a room with Osama, Saddam and JO. You have a gun with 2 bullets. Who do you shoot?


Answer: JO twice.

 

[WileE]

Since this is a rumor-mill thread, I might as well pass along that I heard a very similar rumor from a Mesa captain with friends in management in Phoenix. According to him there is word that JO is floating around about starting up another LCC that would take over from American when they move out of the St. Louis market. Supposedly they are in the market for 717's from Boeing to serve as the stable.

Supposedly this carrier was going to be under Mesa Air Group (maybe with a renamed Freedom certificate) but nothing in the rumor said anything about a relationship with Virgin.

Sounds like a juicy rumor to me, thought I'd pass it along.

 

[jborsdrf]

Chautuaqua's white and blue 145 is USAirways only and should be painted soon, if not already. It still has the paint scheme of the original Greek owners (Axiom). We tried to use an Americawest painted 145 on a Delta route once and I heard Delta about lost their sh*t.