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Virgin America to Lease Nine More Planes, Start New Routes

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DieselDragRacer

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By SUSAN CAREY

Virgin America, which started flying in 2007, said Thursday that it made arrangements to lease nine additional Airbus jetliners, allowing it to announce new service to Orlando, Fla., and Toronto. The company also said it will launch three additional destinations later this year.

The airline, in which Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group Ltd., holds a 25% voting stake and a 49% economic interest, said it will resume its growth plans of adding about 12 aircraft a year to its fleet, according to David Cush, the president and chief executive officer.

Virgin America, based in San Francisco, lost what Mr. Cush said was a year of growth because of a protracted Department of Transportation inquiry into its ownership structure.

After U.S. investors that held most of the 77% of the airline's
U.S.-controlled capital last year exercised their "put" options to sell their stakes back to Virgin Group, the Transportation Department launched a lengthy review of the airline's ownership. To comply with U.S. law, local airlines must prove that U.S. interests own at least a majority of the company and have a 75% voting stake.

After a recapitalization exercise in which one of the original U.S. investors returned in a bigger role and some of the airline's directors put money in, Virgin America in January was cleared as a "U.S. citizen." The airline also landed $70 million in new debt financing.

Mr. Cush said while Virgin Group was dealing with the DOT inquiry, it couldn't get financing for additional planes because "the financial community wanted to know the government wasn't going to pull the plug on us." With that cloud lifted, the company has been able to line up nine leased Airbus A-320 to be delivered this year and into early 2011, he said.
Four more aircraft, the last of the carrier's initial order for 32 A-320s, will be delivered in late 2011, bringing the fleet to 41.

The company said it intends to begin service to Orlando Aug. 19 with daily flights from both San Francisco and Los Angeles International Airport. It is applying for rights to add service to Toronto Pearson International Airport as early as this June from San Francisco and L.A.

As part of its growing emphasis on long-haul flights, Virgin America said it will quit flying to John Wayne International Airport in Orange County, Calif., from San Francisco in late May.

Currently, the airline flies up and down the West Coast and serves four East Coast destinations—Boston, Washington's Dulles International Airport, New York's Kennedy International Airport and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. One of the three new destinations Virgin America will announce later this year will be a long-haul service, Mr. Cush said.

In the third quarter of 2009, the latest period for which Virgin America has reported its financial results to the DOT, the company posted its first operating income of $5.1 million. It had a net loss of $5.9 million on revenue of $158 million in that period. That was an improvement over the third quarter of 2008, when it lost $59 million on revenue of $114 million.
Mr. Cush said Virgin America will report its fourth-quarter 2009 results in a couple of weeks. He said the airline is "tracking ahead of plan" in terms of revenue and income.

Write to Susan Carey at [email protected]
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...9240778628892.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews
 
Great news!!!! Nice to see someone expanding.


Thats f*cked dude. Everytime everyone tries to pull themselves up an airline like virgin pops up and pays its pilots crapola. I would like to see any of those captains buy an nice house where they are based, drive nice cars and send their kids to college. Stay in your ERJ especially if you are at express jet. You make more money than that "skybus" on steroids....
 
Thats f*cked dude. Everytime everyone tries to pull themselves up an airline like virgin pops up and pays its pilots crapola. I would like to see any of those captains buy an nice house where they are based, drive nice cars and send their kids to college. Stay in your ERJ especially if you are at express jet. You make more money than that "skybus" on steroids....

And Continental, with its $31/hr, no health insurance benefits, first year pay does a great job as well huh? And with the $5/hr raise coming soon, VAs second year pay will be at $60/hr for the A319/320, which is exactly $1/hr less than Continentals blended SN/LN pay rate for second year. And given that Continental has more than ten times the number of pilots VA has, I'd say the Continental guys are doing far more downward pulling on pilot salaries than the folks at VA.

The pilots at the Express/Connection carriers flying RJs have done far more damage to pilot wages over the last 15 years than anybody at a start-up. And yes I am gulity as well, lest you think I am throwing stones in my glass house.

Virgin America/Skybus/JetBlue, etc are capitalism at its finest. And since we are all flag waving, patriotic, captialist loving Americans, we should celebrate these carriers, not bemoan their existence.

The Express/Connection carriers are outsourcing at its finest. We should wish for the end of the Skywests, Shupublitaquas, American Eagles of the world.

I think there should be two rules on here:

1) Anyone who claims to love capitalism should never complain about start-up companies.

2) Anyone who flies, or has flown, for an outsourcing agency (ie. Express/Connection type airline) should never be allowed to preach to others about "raising the bar" or anything similar.
 
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Thats f*cked dude. Everytime everyone tries to pull themselves up an airline like virgin pops up and pays its pilots crapola. I would like to see any of those captains buy an nice house where they are based, drive nice cars and send their kids to college. Stay in your ERJ especially if you are at express jet. You make more money than that "skybus" on steroids....

I agree with NEDude. CAL certainly ain't the best airline out there by a LONG SHOT. Give VA some time to get some scale and grow its employee base - wages will improve (just look at JetBlue vs. its wages 5-10 years ago - not perfect but it's an improvement). It may take some time but it will happen with VA too. And no, I don't work for VA - it's just nice to see some expansion out there.

And hey, we all want to earn more money and have better QOL. That said, don't expect to get rich in this industry - ever. Especially now. Quit crying and go back to law school if you want to make some real money.
 
Thats f*cked dude. Everytime everyone tries to pull themselves up an airline like virgin pops up and pays its pilots crapola. I would like to see any of those captains buy an nice house where they are based, drive nice cars and send their kids to college. Stay in your ERJ especially if you are at express jet. You make more money than that "skybus" on steroids....



A Continental guy is giving VA grief! LOL LOL That is the FUNNIEST thing I have ever heard. How about this "LittleMeat," just try and do your OWN surviving and lets see how well you boys do with this next contract.....my prediction.....you will all FOLD like a house of cards. You are PATHETIC! Why don't you do a little airline history studying before you start throwing stones there huh....(ie how many guys crossed a picket line and are STILL flying for CAL?) :rolleyes:
 

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