Virgin America denied

Just saw this link when lurking around the net this evening

[url][/url]http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=agpl_rf9il98&refer=news[url][/url]

Could this be game over, ball burst??

[mcmbenjamin]

Good spot John! But that is bad news.

Something is not right with that! Maybe if Branson wanted to apply to move to the US using a sizeable investment into a new company he may be on better ground. This surely must be against some free trade law or rights.

What about if he bought out a dying US carrier and then renamed it. How would that stand?

The entire world seems to have some of these clauses with the exception of the UK who welcome rich and poor alike, unless of course you are a US visitor overstayed on the wrong visa who gets deported with her kids leaving her husband in the UK stranded away from his family (as happened to one of my friends)

Paul

[Bazz]

Following on from the earlier thread the only solace I can draw from the piece in John's link is:

"While we disagree with this tentative order, we respect the department's decision," Virgin America said in a statement. "We remain committed to getting our wings." The company said it use the order as a road map to resolve the concerns and will respond to the Transportation Department by Jan. 10.

At least it appears thy have not quit although how they get around these so called "various interlocking financial agreements" is obviously going to be a major issue.

Good Luck Virgin America! Go baby go! [y][y][y][y]

[Pete]

The bigwigs at CO and AA are no-doubt rubbing their hands with glee as they celebrate the death of the application. I shall not forget that theirs are the hands with the blood on them.

Originally posted by pixuk
The bigwigs at CO and AA are no-doubt rubbing their hands with glee as they celebrate the death of the application. I shall not forget that theirs are the hands with the blood on them.

Don't count VX out just yet, Virgin America still has a chance to play around with its command structure and get its application passed. I'm hoping this will come true, although I'm not sure exactly how it will work...[:?]

hmmmm, Maybe a puppet boss!?

Paul

[Scrooge]

This kind of reminds me of what happened when the Virgin group were talking about buying into a casino out here, the gaming control board let it be known that they would go through the entire Virgin group and the back grounds of each officer of the company, Virgin backed away.

Im not saying that they are hiding anything of course, just that they do like to keep the finance side of the company a little hidden away, this could of been one of the problems the VX app?

Originally posted by pixuk
The bigwigs at CO and AA are no-doubt rubbing their hands with glee as they celebrate the death of the application. I shall not forget that theirs are the hands with the blood on them.

The bad thing about it all is the reality of the situation: if we, as consumers, try to let AA and CO know with our dollars and our feet that we are displeased with their actions, we're putting ourselves in for a world of misery.

Who do we fly around the US, then? US Airways? Never, not if they were the last airline on earth. I'd rather walk or swim!

Delta? With the unwanted US Airways merger hovering over them, not now, thanks. If they merge - nuh-uh, noway, nohow.

Let's just not mention Northwest, shall we?

Southwest? If they allowed pets, I'd put up with their seats, but they don't allow onboard pets. My cat travels with me domestically. I won't put him in cargo. So, it's nix on the bing! people.

United? They sure covered themselves in glory over Denver's mess. That made it plain as day: get stranded, fend for yourself! UA won't lift a finger. Don't believe me? Read ukcobra's Stranded-in-Denver TRs.

Regionals? Well, there went getting anywhere in a hurry (will have to change planes/carriers), but at least they're better than the major carriers in the US. Now, if they could just get major service routes where I need to go!

CO's now in the US news for a pile of ransacked bags left in a dumpster. All they're saying is 'no comment' over it. Gee, I really feel that they would deserve to lose pax to VX for that one!

Bad thing is, I used to fly American everywhere, for over 15 years I only flew AA. I'm sure gonna miss them if I don't fly them at all domestically, but that's just the way it is. [:w]

Competition is good! If you can't take the competition, hang it up.

CO was the best of the lot; maybe it was worried about losing its VS feed. As vs-itsallgood says, there isn't a lot of choice as all the other legacy carriers are certainly worth avoiding. I wonder if VS will ditch its code-shares now...

The market may be saturated, but that's only 'cos it's full of cr@p airlines trying (in vain) to cling on to the last threads of life. My only gripe with the majority of LCCs is the absence of an F cabin...VX could have fixed that;)
DL had the right forumla with Song, but then it couldn't even handle the competition from its own damn airline[xx(]

VS.

I hope the UK tells the US govt to forget about open skies and that if the US airlines think they're getting their hands on LHR, they can think again.
If the US airlines want their market protected, we can do the same[:(!]

BTW, I have nothing against anyone from across the pond, unless you happen to be at the head of one of the big 6 carriers;)

VS.

Originally posted by VS045
CO was the best of the lot; maybe it was worried about losing its VS feed. As vs-itsallgood says, there isn't a lot of choice as all the other legacy carriers are certainly worth avoiding. I wonder if VS will ditch its code-shares now...

The market may be saturated, but that's only 'cos it's full of cr@p airlines trying (in vain) to cling on to the last threads of life. My only gripe with the majority of LCCs is the absence of an F cabin...VX could have fixed that;)
DL had the right forumla with Song, but then it couldn't even handle the competition from its own damn airline[xx(]

VS.

Note that the same person who was in charge of Delta/Song is running Virgin America...[:w]

Chuck commented in the other thread on this subject that I was a little harsh (and seems I am not alone from other comments here), and maybe so, however if I might pick up on the comments it was said:

"A tad unfair, that post ... From what I've heard the VX situation was driven by politics (in the form of lobbying by American carriers). Had VX known when it was forming that the friendly political climate it had been led to expect would welcome the fledgling carrier would not in fact be there, wouldn't VX have organized in a different fashion? I think so."

If I may say, politics = protectionism of self interest, before and above open trade. And I also ask just how much money has the US tax payer supported airlines in recent years? So, when I say propped up by government it may have some truth in it.

We don't have laws preventing foreign ownership of airlines in the UK, and my real point is I'd not expect the US to have such laws either, representing as it does a beacon for trade and fair play. In reality politics and protectionism do come into play in the US as anywhere ...

Oops, now back on the floor after falling off soapbox [B)]

eg. US Airways: $900M government loan

The US aviation industry is in a pretty bad shape for the majors, although it is improving, unfortunately at the cost of the airline employees.
One would think deregulation would mean that you could fly what/how/when you wanted, but apparently this only applies if it is not at the cost of existing carriers.

Perhaps the US govt is trying to avoid another PanAm - like disaster, but based on people's opinions, is anyone really going to miss the likes of NW, for example, after they've been shoe-horned into some Y seat with their ankles round their shoulders for a 10hr trans-pacific.
Clearly, the collapse of one of the majors would result in huge job losses, but with the growth of the LCCs, I'm sure they could find employment with a more benevolent employer. Maybe one that does not wipe out its employess pensions whilst being run by those with country club membership for life paid for by the airline and various golden parachutes;)

VS.

It's taken me a while to remember where I saw this article, but I finally did.

It's from 2003, but I think it's still valid today. For anyone who reads it, and has never been to the site it's on, I recommend bookmarking it, as there's a wealth of info there (and reviews of just about everything travel-related, including this gem of a review about the UCS rollout and the reviewer's trips on the VS019 and VS020).

Just reading that old review made me realize how far the mighty have fallen, if recent TRs are any indication. [:(]

I'm keeping an eye peeled for a scorching review of the FCC denial by someone in the US...

Thanks, vs-itsallgood[y]

Very interesting article:) I seem to have calmed down a bit after venting a few rants during the course of this thread[:I]

My 2000th post:D

VS.

Originally posted by vs_itsallgood
I'm keeping an eye peeled for a scorching review of the FCC denial by someone in the US...

I'd do one if I had a wider knowledge of the history of foreign ownership and all that good stuff. I wouldn't want to miss something that ruins my argument.

Originally posted by VS045
My 2000th post:D
VS.

[y] Woohoo! [y] May you have many more!
(I wish your milestone had come to pass on a happier thread, though).

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by VS045

My 2000th post
VS.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Woohoo! May you have many more!
(I wish your milestone had come to pass on a happier thread, though).

Thank you very much - I too wish that I had posted more strategically so that my 2000th post did not coincide with one that I had insulted most of the US aviation industry[:I]

VS.

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by VS045

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by VS045

My 2000th post
VS.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Woohoo! May you have many more!
(I wish your milestone had come to pass on a happier thread, though).

Thank you very much - I too wish that I had posted more strategically so that my 2000th post did not coincide with one that I had insulted most of the US aviation industry[:I]

VS.

Oh don't worry about it to much, my milestone post's are normally insults at someone

Originally posted by VS-EWR

Originally posted by vs_itsallgood
I'm keeping an eye peeled for a scorching review of the FCC denial by someone in the US...

I'd do one if I had a wider knowledge of the history of foreign ownership and all that good stuff. I wouldn't want to miss something that ruins my argument.

Here's a site with lots of current VX info for you (the page link is to the denial info), and the site always references with links. You can search back for supporting documentation.

I've done press reports, sales brochures, stockholder reports, scripts, books, and other things, but I don't do news articles. I wish you well, have at! [y]