Freight Dog

Virgin America is expecting to launch ops in 2006. They aren't officially recruiting yet, but have released an email address to send your resume to.

From their web site, "We're not hiring for many positions yet but if you simply can't wait to tell us about yourself, get in touch! Email your resume to: [email protected] and be sure to include your area of interest in the Subject Line of the email."

Visit their site for more info: www.virginamerica.com.

Corporate HQ will reside in New York City, and San Francisco will serve as their ops HQ. Fred Reid (ex-Delta President and COO) was appointed CEO last year.

Here's a quote from Richard Branson recently:



What's the latest about Virgin America, a low-fare carrier you're planning to introduce in the United States?

Basically, we could not own an airline under the current laws. We had to decide whether to entrust the Virgin brand with some American partners.

It's taken us some time to find the right partners who we felt we could completely trust. I'm hopeful that sometime in the first half of next year, we'll finally be launched -- or this entity will finally be launched in America. We're close to being there. It's been a longer process than I thought it would be.

Is the U.S. market too crowded?

It could just be that I'm a masochist, but hopefully not.

First of all, if this marketplace were a normal marketplace, a number of these big carriers would have gone bankrupt by now.

One of the things that strikes me, it's so bizarre that a Republican government of all governments should be out spending billions of taxpayers' money propping up very, very inefficient American carriers. You would have thought Republicans would have learned the way capitalism works best is if people are not performing, you let them go bankrupt, which leaves room for efficient new carriers, which will drive prices down.

If government money goes into propping up established carriers, prices will stay high. I'm taking a slight gamble in that my feeling is the Republicans will get fed up with plowing more and more money into the big, established carriers.

I have a gut feeling that over the next two or three years, we will see a casualty amongst one of the bigger carriers. I think it's much more likely we'll see a casualty amongst the bigger carriers than amongst the efficient, well- run smaller carriers.

Even if we don't see a casualty in the next two or three years, our brand is very strong.

Will the new airline go after a certain market?

Talking in generalities, there is not, for instance, a good airline in America for business travelers anymore. It's been a market that is actually overlooked. I think it's a market worth looking at.



As the situation there develops, we'll keep you on top of things.