Anyone heard much about this? http://www.virginamerica.com/ They are the "first airline with mood lighting", offer a touch-screen at every seat with movies, TV, mp3s...each seat has a 110v outlet and ethernet jack i think.. oh, you can order food from your touch-screen with a credit card. So a lot of new things...only 5 airports right now (JFK, SFO, IAD, LAX, LAS). No clue if they're going to price normally, price high for a "luxury" airline even in coach...or price low like Independence Air did. But I did a search for IAD to LAS and got back $350 on off-peak days, $400 on weekends...higher than normal.
Virgin Airlines has been around for awhile I think, but only originating flights from Europe I believe. It's got a reputation for being the nicest, 'high-end' flights you can get aside from chartering your own private jet. Obviously spawned from Richard Branson's Virgin brand, and you know he goes all out on his endeavors. First class into outer space, baby...Virgin Galactic!
I'm in the airline business and predict they will be crushed by domestic competition. Virgin Atlantic is based in London and has competed very well over the years against British Airways, who is not the most nimble airline in the world. They also launched an Australian domestic carrier called Virgin Blue that poked a big hole in the bloated, pampered carrier known as Qantas. In the U.S, Virgin will face a very mature market with entrenched barracudas who will challenge them on every direct route. It figures they chose San Francisco to start with because United is the predominant carrier there and represents the easiest target airline for them to aim at. Don't expect them to challenge Continental at IAH or Southwest at Hobby anytime soon because they would get steamrollered. Richard Branson has screamed for years about it being unfair that he couldn't start a U.S. based airline. Without going into the legal issues involved, he finally gets his way. As far as I'm concerned, he is free to lose as much money as he wants to. Because of very low labor costs (i.e, the employees are all brand new), they will do OK at first. But to keep average costs low in the future they must expand and continue to hire new people. I think they will hit the wall in 4-5 years, maybe sooner. The airline business is tough to make money in and Branson is no King Midas. He has a lot of failures on his record and this will be another one, eventually.
Virgin Blue is a budget airline. No such concept before they entered the market. When Virgin entered the main domestic carrier Ansett was already in trouble financially and went under shortly afterwards. So there was a bit of luck there for them.
I took a look at their website. Looks pretty interesting. Branson is a very smart business man and I think he will probably have success with this new airline. Looks a lot like JetBlue, but a little nicer, and JetBlue is one of my favorite airlines to fly.
Unless they are targeting the premium market they will fail... but it looks like thats what they are doing. If you aren't a rich guy looking for a comfy flight, you're everybody else: buying strictly on price.
The problem is the other airlines also target the "premium market" as you call it. These travelers are what keep the major carriers in business because the leisure travelers are nothing but dead weight in this industry. (I suppose you could except Southwest, JetBlue, AirTran, etc). The major carriers will do everything possible, including scorching the earth, before yielding high revenue frequent fliers to this latest Virgin incarnation. Believe me, there is no industry in the world like the U.S. airline business. There is nothing remotely as dysfunctional, for a myriad of reasons.
Wow, this is going to be a very exciting compeition. American airline business if full of greed, I hope this will break these pricey airline business.
Inaugural Flight was today. http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/08/virgin-americas-inaugural-flight/ If you dont know anything about the airline here are some features and a video. <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CdK2ecxy9kU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CdK2ecxy9kU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> Seatback consoles * Linux-based with Tiny X * VA developed Red in-flight interface * 9-inch integrated touchscreen * 1024 x 600 resolution (oh, so close to HD! but not quite) * Dual internal flash drives for redundant storage of embedded OS Niceties that melt our hearts * One USB port and one ethernet port per seat * USB can be used with a portable keyboard on seatback console (or to charge your device) * Ethernet hooks you into a LAN with the rest of the passengers * Two 110v outlets per 3-seat row (and one per seat in first class) * Dual 802.11b WiFi access points in cabin (fore and aft) * Sprint EV-DO uplink (for ground communications) * Yet-unannounced in-air broadband uplink * LED mood lighting throughout the craft Communications * Send email and SMS messages from your seat console * In-cabin chats, either private (one on one), group (by invite), or common (whole plane) * Dedicated chat rooms for each channel to discuss what's on TV * Send food and beverage orders (and pay) directly from your console * Galley inventory lists are transmitted wirelessly when the plane is stocked; customers are prompted when their order cannot be fulfilled due to no remaining inventory Entertainment * Streaming pay-per-view movies from on-board media server * Over 3,000 MP3 tunes stored in on-board media server; persistent play lists (i.e. the playlist you make online or in your seat will follow you to future flights) * Dish live TV with in-flight program guide * Games! Open source titles (including Doom); VA will host an open source game dev competition, the best games will be added to the playable titles list. Gear and servers * One system controller * Three Dish receiver / tuner boxes * Three redundant storage arrays for streaming audio and video -- during flight data (including CC transactions) is written only to encrypted flash Etc. * Flight attendants can monitor traffic spikes from bandwidth-greedy users * Seats 149 passengers (eight in first class) * Lavatories have their own soundtrack, kind of like those chic hotels * Prices should be "competitive" with some budget airlines * Expected to take flight this summer (US Dept. of Transportation approval pending)
Dude, chatting between seats feature is awesome. I cannot tell you how many times I have sat in a plane between two fat dudes watching a hottie only 2 rows up from me being cursed by the luck of the draw. Almost every time I have had the chance to sit next to a pretty girl on a long flight I have hooked up. This shatters the limitations of my mile high game.
