Virgin America has been approved to launch service. Now that the company has been formally approved, the next step will be to seek a waiver to start selling tickets. The company is planning a mid-summer launch. Virgin America’s first flights will be between its home base of San Francisco (SFO) to New York (JFK). The airline also plans to serve Los Angeles (LAX), Washington/Dulles, San Diego and Las Vegas within its first year of operations. The airline expects to serve as many as 10 cities within a year of operation and up to 30 cities within five years of service. Additional cities under Virgin America’s consideration include: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Nashville, Newark, New Orleans, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Providence, Portland, Ore., Raleigh-Durham, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Jose, Calif., Sarasota, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa and West Palm Beach. Let’s see how San Francisco to New York works out first.
Icelandair began its service from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada at 10PM Thursday night with service three times weekly to Iceland.
Northwest Airlines and Midwest Airlines will begin a codeshare partnership this summer. The arrangement could open up to 250 city pairs and over one thousand new flight options. We didn’t know the two carriers connected up in that many places. Northwest routes that will contain the Midwest flight numbers will be ones beyond their hubs at Minneapolis, Detroit, and Memphis, as well as their focus city at Indianapolis and some flights to Alaska and Hawaii. Northwest will place its flight numbers on flights from Kansas City and Milwaukee to Atlanta, Boston, Hartford, Los Angeles and San Francisco that connect to the Northwest/KLM trans-Atlantic network and trans-Pacific network. Complete details will be announced when available.
American Airlines will begin year-round nonstop service to Montevideo, Uruguay from its Miami hub three times weekly. It will continue to offer service to Montevideo via Buenos Aires. It previously offered the service seasonally beginning in 2004, and will upgrade it effective in July.
Frontier Airlines wants permission to fly to Costa Rica from points in the United States and beyond. Frontier had already applied for blanket authority to serve any country with an open skies agreement with the United States.
The final major structure for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was delivered to the assembly plant in Everett, Washington on Wednesday. The integrated midbody fuselage consists of sections made by several companies and joined together in Charleston, South Carolina. The piece was flown to Everett in the Dreamlifter, a specially modified 747-400 used to transport the 787 assemblies. The stage is set for the July testing of the model.
The Secretary of Transportation has earmarked $1 million to study the possibility of a second airport in Atlanta. The secretary said that by 2025 airports in Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, and San Diego could be overwhelmed by passenger demand. The airport general manager is in favor of the study. Atlanta is the world’s busiest airport. Delta and Airtran, which maintain hubs at Atlanta, are skeptical about the idea, and would prefer to work on expanding the hub to ensure that connecting opportunities at the hub remain. Splitting traffic would damage that. An alternative suggestion that has been explored in the past is expanding service to alternate airports in the region who would divert passengers who would otherwise come to Atlanta to fly, such as Chatanooga.
Airtran continues to try to take over Midwest. The majority of stockholders seem interested in the deal, but under Wisconsin law, the Board of Directors can still prevent the takeover. Midwest still maintains its anti-merger website at www.savethecookie.com.