SANFan From United States, joined Aug 2006, 2468 posts, RR: 11 Posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 1 day ago) and read 1279 times:
Virgin begins service today at Lindbergh Field -- 3x daily increasing to 5x next month.
From the SAN.org website press release:
Quote: Virgin America, California's hometown airline, launches service between its home base of San Francisco International Airport (SF0) and San Diego International Airport (SAN). Beginning Tuesday, February 12, Virgin America will offer three daily flights to San Diego, expanding to five daily flights on March 9. An average of 2,300 passengers flies each way between San Diego and San Francisco every day.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and the San Diego Charger Girls will welcome Virgin Group Founder and Chairman Sir Richard Branson in true San Diego style, with water cannon salute, a reception at Gate 19 and a VIP receiving line on the tarmac as the first flight arrives from San Francisco with Branson on board.
When: Tuesday, February 12, 2008
11:00 a.m. -- 12:00 a.m.
•
11:15 a.m. Virgin American plane arrival with water cannon salute
•
11:20 a.m. Mayor Jerry Sanders and Charger Girls provide red carpet
welcome to Sir Richard Branson on the tarmac
•
11:30 a.m. Brief speaking program with Q & A
•
11:45 a.m. Limited press tours of plane
Who: Alan Bersin, Board Chairman, Airport Authority
Mayor Jerry Sanders, City of San Diego
David Cush, President/CEO, Virgin America
Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group Chairman and Founder
Where: San Diego International Airport, Terminal 1 (West end), Gate 19.
Looks like VX will use gate 25 normally and live somewhere in T2E (although the terminal maps at SAN.org are certainly no help...)
I wonder if there might be any announcement by Sir Richard about additional routes out of SAN by Virgin in the future?
There will be news from jetBlue later on today regarding SAN growth. Watch for that...
So far this year, a total of 5 new flights have been added at Lindbergh, including 3 new routes/carriers (AQ to LIH and KOA and VX to SFO) and, as of now, 4 additional new future routes have been announced (DEN on WN, ZX to LGW, MKE on FL and NW to MEM.) Three routes have been or will be lost (SX to CMH, QX to BOI and FL to MCO.) And of course, PR to MNL has been applied for but seems fraught with problems for now...
So far, it looks like an interesting and dynamic year for SAN.
bb
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Lindy Field From United States, joined Mar 2001, 2950 posts, RR: 9 Reply 1, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 23 hours ago) and read 1229 times:
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SANFan,
I can agree that it will be an interesting and dynamic year, but I still think we'll see the loss of more service (or more service by smaller aircraft) as the year goes on, thanks to the weakening economy. You know SAN could lose quite a few routes in one blow if ExpressJet realigns their operations... Yup, my middle name is doom. Or was it gloom?
Will be interesting to see what plans JetBlue has!
SANFan From United States, joined Aug 2006, 2468 posts, RR: 11 Reply 2, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 23 hours ago) and read 1195 times:
Oh yeah, THAT Lindy; I was just about over your last slamming-the-door-on-my-euphoria post!
I know, I know. The whole XE thing is very worrisome to me as well. Even though they didn't account for a whole lot of the over 18M pax last year, they sure offered (and continue to as of now) lots of unique service, only some of which might be duplicated by others in the event of a shut-down of XE. (As discussed on another thread, XE still doesn't have a summer schedule released!)
Nevertheless, it is, to me anyway, a good thing to see growth by several carriers here, including 2 new ones so far (and maybe more depending on whether NK announces and who knows about PR). I still look at it as the glass is half full!
And by the way, how can anyone be depressed after looking at that beautiful picture of Pualani taxiing down B (or D at this point?) and on her way to (the other) paradise!
Yeah, we know B6 will be adding 3 new flights out of Lindbergh later this year but destinations (and whether new or just added frequency to existing ones) are unknown for now. I (or someone else I'm sure) will get it posted on this thread as soon as the announcement is released.
bb
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SANFan From United States, joined Aug 2006, 2468 posts, RR: 11 Reply 4, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 972 times:
Quoting DL767captain (Reply 3): I'm on by way doe right now where is the best place to see it?
Just now saw your question 'captain; I assume you wanted to see the water salute for VX? Please give a report of what went on at the press conference.
Well, the B6 news is SAN-SEA starting May 21, I assume 3x daily and I assume with 190s. Still checking as the info has just been released. (That'll teach VX to not jump on routes like that when they had the chance -- when there was only 1 cx serving SAN-SEA !)
bb
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PanAm747 From United States, joined Feb 2004, 4242 posts, RR: 11 Reply 5, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 966 times:
I wish Virgin America luck, but I hope they realize what they're up against...
United and Southwest have extensive business contracts with companies such as Hewlett-Packard that have their own website just for corporate travel. The multiple SoCal to Bay Area/Sacramento business flying is NOT going to be an easy market to break into, and the state of California has seen multiple carriers try this route and fail - both Frontier and Alaska have all but given up.
Also, other than the a.net site here, I haven't seen or heard one word of advertising by VX - who is their target market? And how are they going to fill their planes with premium traffic?
Pan Am:The World's Most Experienced Airline - P(oor) S(ailor's) A(irline): San Diego's Hometown Airline-Catch Our Smile!
SANFan From United States, joined Aug 2006, 2468 posts, RR: 11 Reply 6, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 18 hours ago) and read 924 times:
Quoting SANFan (Reply 4): Well, the B6 news is SAN-SEA starting May 21, I assume 3x daily and I assume with 190s. Still checking as the info has just been released.
After looking into this a bit deeper, it looks like, so far, SAN got 1 r/t to SEA out of this -- it's a SAN-SEA-SAN turn and appears to be an Airbus flight:
SAN: 3:00pm
SEA: 5:45pm flt 276
SEA: 6:40pm
SAN: 9:25pm flt 279
However, I don't know where the plane comes from or goes to around this r/t; does it mean there is more to come for SAN? (The indications were that there would be 3 flights added at SAN and the SLC flights mentioned in the p r are old news.)
How about a FLL-SAN flight arriving about 2pm, turning to this SEA r/t, then returning as a red-eye (to FLL) at about 10:15pm? Plus maybe an additional BOS-SAN-BOS (daylight) flight as well?
Still scratchin' my head about this whole thing...
bb
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SANFan From United States, joined Aug 2006, 2468 posts, RR: 11 Reply 7, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 16 hours ago) and read 827 times:
VX has posted on their website the p r about SAN's new service without any mention of anything new coming. I wonder if they will now react in any way to B6's announced SAN-SEA service? Or if AS will do anything?
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that B6 is tagging their SEA flight as "seasonal." (I wasn't too surprised when FL did it with their new ATL route last year -- and quickly gave up the ridiculous idea -- but I am kind of surprised to see Blue doing it.) I can't believe this will remain seasonal for long...
I'm still waiting to see what else B6 will be doing with SAN 'cause I know something else has to be happening on May 21!
bb
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DL767captain From United States, joined Mar 2007, 1717 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 16 hours ago) and read 779 times:
Quoting SANFan (Reply 4): Just now saw your question 'captain; I assume you wanted to see the water salute for VX? Please give a report of what went on at the press conference.
i just made a new thread about Virgin in SAN with a vid and a couple pics check it out.
Silver1SWA From United States, joined Mar 2004, 2882 posts, RR: 21 Reply 11, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 638 times:
Quoting PanAm747 (Reply 5): Also, other than the a.net site here, I haven't seen or heard one word of advertising by VX - who is their target market?
The only thing I have heard advertised was a radio advertisement late last night about some big party Branson is throwing to kick off the new service. Don't know what their target market is, but that ad certainly target the party/club scene!
Saw VX take the active as I drove by on my way to work. Wish I had paid more attention to their start at SAN...I would have come in early to get some pics. Oh well. Any other locals get some shots today?
ALL views, opinions expressed are mine ONLY and are NOT representative of those shared by Southwest Airlines Co.
SANFan From United States, joined Aug 2006, 2468 posts, RR: 11 Reply 12, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 638 times:
Quoting San747 (Reply 9): Cool to hear about Branson and the Charger Girls being there for the arrival! And to keep the mood up, here's a shot of the future of SAN-
Very nice '747, but why the heck didn't you include a shot of the Charger Girls?
Quoting DCAYOW (Reply 10): NWA has actually upgraded the SAN-MEM flight to A319.
I sure hadn't noticed that yet 'YOW. Good catch and a positive move from NW! Next, let's see it permanent/year-'round before it's supposed to disappear in late summer...
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SANMAN66 From United States, joined Aug 2006, 234 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 600 times:
Quoting SANFan (Reply 12): Good catch and a positive move from NW! Next, let's see it permanent/year-'round before it's supposed to disappear in late summer...
Maybe there's hope for that flight since they upgraded it to an A319. However,
it still would have been cool if it was still an E-170/75
Great pictures San747! Just some more good things to come in SAN's future!
Let's hope PAL overcome their problems soon so we can see those
colorful A340's alongside those ZOOM "bluebirds"!
Until we get a new airport,improve on what we have already.
SANFan From United States, joined Aug 2006, 2468 posts, RR: 11 Reply 14, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 592 times:
Quoting Silver1SWA (Reply 11): The only thing I have heard advertised was a radio advertisement late last night about some big party Branson is throwing to kick off the new service. Don't know what their target market is, but that ad certainly target the party/club scene!
SANMAN66 From United States, joined Aug 2006, 234 posts, RR: 1 Reply 15, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 588 times:
Quoting SANFan (Reply 7): B6's announced SAN-SEA service
I wonder what's B6 trying to do?First,they decided to move into Delta country
by announcing SAN-SLC,and now they're foraying in Alaska's territory with
a SAN-SEA flight.I wonder if they're trying to build up a mini-hub or focus city
in SAN,similar to WN,by adding all those flights? And now with today's
announcement of LAX,it seems like they want to go head to head with
Southwest on the West Coast. It seems like Jetblue's all over the place!
[Edited 2008-02-12 18:27:12]
Until we get a new airport,improve on what we have already.
Sdexplorer00 From United States, joined Dec 2007, 97 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 555 times:
With jetBlue now adding more flights, anyone have any idea what will happen to Hawaiian that shares their counter. They are going to start to have schedule conflicts as soon as SLC starts it's morning flight.
SANFan From United States, joined Aug 2006, 2468 posts, RR: 11 Reply 17, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 3 hours ago) and read 446 times:
Quoting Sdexplorer00 (Reply 16): With jetBlue now adding more flights, anyone have any idea what will happen to Hawaiian that shares their counter
B6 used to have a morning departure (the IAD n/s when it started) but it was quite early and probably didn't interfere with HA (or maybe HA was still over in T2E next to NW at that time.)
Anyway, you bring up a valid point that will probably start becoming a bigger and bigger problem as any available space (counter, op's, gate) gets pressed into use. At SAN, and certainly not unique to our airport, the ticket/check-in counter space is not necessarily in the correct proportion to the op's and gate space used by each carrier. In the case of HA/B6 in the morning starting in May, I guess there will be slightly longer wait times for HA check-in as they will undoubtedly have fewer available check-in positions.
As a recap of the day (Tuesday), apparently Virgin got a nice welcome to our city, has added 3 daily departures (which will increase to 5 next month) to SFO, and at least as of today, has no plans to serve any other cities or add any additional frequency from San Diego.
JetBlue has announced, as of now, 1 additional flight to a new destination (for them) from SAN: SEA. Quite a surprise for most of us, no? Kind of disappointing to me, if that's really all there is, as the initial release indicated 3 new flights for SAN... Until the final schedule is available, which it currently is not, it looks like Blue will have about 8 daily departures to 5 destinations from Lindbergh! (I still feel deep down inside that by May, it will end up being more departures and more destinations than that...)
Oh, and the new MEM service, starting 5/02, has (already) been upgraded to mainline metal (319s!)
bb
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DesertAir From Mexico, joined Jan 2006, 1037 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (1 year 9 months 3 weeks 3 hours ago) and read 435 times:
I find it interesting that both Virgin America and Jet Blue are moving into highly competitive routes. While the legacies are speaking consolidation, VX and B5 are speaking expansion. We live in interesting times.
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