SFO announced as base for Virgin USA

Announced yesterday in this SF Chronicle article

Extract:
A new low-fare airline carrying the Virgin name will be based here, the airline announced Friday, a coup for the major tourist destination that's been hard-hit by the dot-com implosion and fallout from the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Corporate headquarters for the as yet unnamed airline will be New York City.

Cheers

Michael

Interesting to split the base and the HQ on opposite sides of the country.

Guess NY is an important City for Virgin and they wanted to placate them somehow?

I wonder if we'll see a second flight to SFO now - didnt there use to be a 2 x daily VS service?

there was speculation on a.net as to whether there would be a SYD-SFO route to link Virgin blue to virgin USA.

that makes market sense, plus once there was the SYD-> LHR route, you could fly round the world on virgin.

It would be even better, if on the SYD->HKG route, you could stop in hong kong for a while, then it'd be a good advertising point:

3 cities, all flying with VS.

(I think I've started to fantasize)

I don't think there'll be the 2nd daily SFO flight, not unless virgin was willing to advertise the possibilities of secondary destinations within the US not already used by VS.

Also for england, a west coast hub is pointless for further destinations in the US, although it is more of a benefit to Passengers from across the pacific.

Virgin worldwide anyone?

Some more information from a local paper. Very ambitious plans - hope to be no.2 in SFO after United.

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~10834~2199439,00.html

Alex