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Rumors Continue Over Virgin America's Possible Canadian Routes

Where: Canada
August 20, 2009 at 5:28 PM | by Omri | 6 Comments

Not content with reaching across the country and expanding service to Ft. Lauderdale, LCC Virgin America has been spreading rumors about new routes to the north. Far, far to the north:

Virgin America ... has announced it’s studying whether to fly to Toronto and Vancouver, as well as several new U.S. destinations... If Virgin proceeds with the plan, analysts say it could not only be flying into Vancouver within three to six months of an announcement, but the move could prompt other discount carriers to follow suit. Others say it would put strong downward pressure on all air fares, making cheaper flights the norm for British Columbians.

Next to "free wifi" and "open bar," "downward pressure" is probably our favorite travel industry phrase. Anyways, this is not new information for us; we chatted with VA's CEO David Cush about the Canadian routes and more in our phone call with him almost two weeks ago.

Virgin is doing all this expanding at the same time as they're challenging the traditional "no frills" image of LCCs. We recently blogged about how Travel + Leisure awarded them "World's Best Domestic Airline for Food" after dubbing them "Best Domestic Airline" for both 2008 and 2009. And of course, they beat every other airline in getting their entire fleet equipped with wifi, not to mention how they've recently upgraded their RED entertainment systems to be both faster and stocked with more content.

Now that cheap, wifi-enabled flights to Canada are close to becoming a reality, the only thing left to do is fix that pesky exchange rate. Those Winter Olympics vacations to Vancouver aren't going to pay for themselves.

[Photo: Limaindia / Wiki Commons]

Related Stories:
· Discount airline Virgin America eyes Vancouver [Vancouver Sun]
· Jaunted Interview: Chatting With Virgin America CEO David Cush [Jaunted]
· LCCs Coverage [Jaunted]
· Virgin America Coverage [Jaunted]

6 Comments

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Return to » Rumors Continue Over Virgin America's Possible Canadian Routes

  1. jaunter

    Jaunted Member

    Payola

    You should disclose that Virgin pays you to blog about them.
    August 20, 2009 at 6:36 PM
    #Permalink

  1. Omri

    Jaunted Member

    Full Disclosure

    Virgin does not pay us to blog about them.

    In fact I would have to check but my hunch is that we post about Ryanair a lot more than we post about Virgin, though it would be close. That's not a coincidence: they're two of the LCC's that consistently make news.

    As long Virgin continues driving down prices and adding perks we'll continue writing positively about them. If they go the Ryanair route and start actively showing disrespect to their customers even as their drive up prices, they'll get the coverage we give Ryanair.

    Or put another way: are you objecting to the part of the post about how they're the first LCC to break open the Canada market or the part about how they're the first airline to add wifi to their whole fleet?

    August 20, 2009 at 7:35 PM
    #Permalink

  1. jaunter

    Jaunted Member

    Response

    I'm saying that your coverage of VX is way out of wack compared to other LCCs, suggesting some kind of bias. Your flip response exposes this: 1. Westjet is the first LCC to "break open" the Canada market. 2. When my two year old can count the number of planes in your fleet, "whole fleet" doesn't mean much. Even American has over 100 planes with wifi.
    August 20, 2009 at 9:21 PM
    #Permalink

  1. JetSetCD

    Jaunted Editor

    Not being paid by any airline

    Re: Payola Jaunted's writers are not paid by any airline, tourism board, or any travel company, or any company other than what it says right at the bottom of our site: concierge.com, which is CondeNet. In the extremely, and I stress extremely, rare event that we go on any press trips, this fact is clearly stated. As with any blog, we cover what is newsworthy and what we love. We cover every airline that has news, and right now certain LCCs are making the waves. In another month, or even another week, whatever your preferred airline is might be all over the headlines. chillax!
    August 20, 2009 at 10:16 PM
    #Permalink

  1. JetSetCD

    Jaunted Editor

    oh yea

    ...and if you think we're in VX's pocket because we chatted with David Cush, you've got the wrong impression. He called us. Woke us up at dawn actually; your move, other airline CEOs.
    August 20, 2009 at 10:19 PM
    #Permalink

  1. Phamer55

    Jaunted Member

    Keep Covering VA

    Please keep covering VA as much as you do - they are my favorite airline and I love all the updates you give us. It's especially great that you get exclusive interviews with David Cush. I will say, though, that I find it kind of weird when Virgin America makes reference to Jaunted articles on its Facebook page (like the recent best food article). That's more of a criticism of VA then Jaunted however. One last thing: you should have an article lamenting the fact that VA raised baggage fees from $15 to $20 today.
    August 21, 2009 at 1:27 PM
    #Permalink

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