Virgin America to drop Toronto, shift flights to Dallas

[Grandpa +65]

Virgin America to drop Toronto, shift flights to Dallas
Comments 2
By Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY

Virgin America's foray into Canada apparently will be short-lived.
The San Francisco-based carrier announced over the weekend that it would "indefinitely suspend" service between Toronto's Pearson International Airport and Los Angeles and San Francisco on April 6, according to the National Post of Toronto.
Virgin America had just begun flying to Toronto in June 2010.
The Post writes that Virgin America "said it would focus its capacity on more lucrative markets from the West Coast, including Dallas."
"We would like to thank the Toronto airport and community for supporting us," Virgin America Vice President of Planning and Sales Diana Walke says in a press release. "We hope to return to YYZ (Toronto) at some point, but in the smaller Toronto-West Coast markets we were not able to stimulate demand as quickly as we would have liked."
On that note, The Dallas Morning News says "Toronto's loss will be Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport's gain."
That's because Virgin America will take the aircraft from its canceled Toronto routes and redeploy them on flights to DFW, where it will add a third daily round-trip to both San Francisco and Los Angeles.
"This helps round out our schedule," Virgin America CEO David Cush tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Cush says Virgin America has been happy with its DFW since it begin flying there in December. He adds the increased schedule "gives us a nice pattern, particularly for the business traveler."
Meanwhile, back in Toronto, Virgin America's retreat from the market appears to be translating into higher fares to California.
Today in the Sky reader Billy Axelrod of Toronto says Virgin America promptly refunded the CDN$335 he paid for an April 13-18 round-trip to San Francisco.
"Air Canada was matching (that fare), but I wanted to try Virgin," Axelrod tells Today in the Sky.
But, with Virgin America out of the market, Axelrod says Air Canada's fares have risen to more than CDN$600 for that itinerary.
Posted Jan 24 2011 11:52AM
http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2011/01/virgin-america-leaves-toronto/139925/1#uslPageReturn

 

[skypine69]

What??? The mighty VX made a mistake??? Say it aint so!

 

[Tomct]

Just redeploying to a stronger market! Better for the bottom line and then we will be back. It's all good, I will take a mistake and movin on VS sitting it out and "HOPING" it will pan out. Virgin will be just fine.

 

[Grandpa +65]

I do not why they will increase frequency to Dallas Market area, VA Bookings on DFW-SFO and DFW-LAX are very low. American Airlines has 10 non-stop flight to LAX/SFO.Maybe another SFO-SNA mistake.

 

[Fubijaakr]

I do not why they will increase frequency to Dallas Market area, VA Bookings on DFW-SFO and DFW-LAX are very low. American Airlines has 10 non-stop flight to LAX/SFO.Maybe another SFO-SNA mistake.

:beer:

 

[Tomct]

I do not why they will increase frequency to Dallas Market area, VA Bookings on DFW-SFO and DFW-LAX are very low. American Airlines has 10 non-stop flight to LAX/SFO.Maybe another SFO-SNA mistake.

Nope, just Americans Worst Nightmare! They have NOTHING to compete with us. Give it time, the bookings are steadily increasing. It won't be long and AA will be losing quite a few big mile folks.

 

[BILL LUMBERG]

Congrats Tomct.....

you win idiot poster of the year.....try an international route structure, solid miles program, Admiral's club, alliances....etc etc.

Wow, you sure ARE going to be a nightmare....to the lessors who won't know what to do when you go tango uniform and can't put their planes anywhere.

 

[Tomct]

Congrats Tomct.....

you win idiot poster of the year.....try an international route structure, solid miles program, Admiral's club, alliances....etc etc.

Wow, you sure ARE going to be a nightmare....to the lessors who won't know what to do when you go tango uniform and can't put their planes anywhere.

Um....YEEEEAAAAHHH, we are going to have to have you come in on Saturday....MMmmmmmkay? Dream on Bill. You can spout off your lame remarks. I am telling you everything that we are hearing from our passengers. Namely, many many people continuing to stop me in DFW terminal thanking us for coming into there....they are SICK of AA. Say what you will, but we are not going anywhere and will only get bigger. But HEY, go out and kill some kittens, I'm sure it will make you feel better....ya ******************************!

 

[johnsonrod]

Um....YEEEEAAAAHHH, we are going to have to have you come in on Saturday....MMmmmmmkay? Dream on Bill. You can spout off your lame remarks. I am telling you everything that we are hearing from our passengers. Namely, many many people continuing to stop me in DFW terminal thanking us for coming into there....they are SICK of AA. Say what you will, but we are not going anywhere and will only get bigger. But HEY, go out and kill some kittens, I'm sure it will make you feel better....ya ******************************!

Difficult to overcome strong loyalty programs from your home base (i.e., DFW area). AA has an advantage in that department with the business travelers accruing points.

That said, the VA economy product is vastly superior to the dated, aged AA economy product. How old are those MD80s nowadays? Yeah, they look it. And so do the AA flight attendants.

 

[Tomct]

Difficult to overcome strong loyalty programs from your home base (i.e., DFW area). AA has an advantage in that department with the business travelers accruing points.

That said, the VA economy product is vastly superior to the dated, aged AA economy product. How old are those MD80s nowadays? Yeah, they look it. And so do the AA flight attendants.

I hear what you are saying Johnson, the point of the matter is we only need a small percentage to do very well in that market. It is getting better every month and we have found out in a lot of our other markets that the loyalty programs are not the actual problem....it's the shortage of destinations. But we have won over many "million milers" from all of the majors in the markets we compete in. They like the "Good Looking" young, HOT Female flight attendants and the excellent service they provide.