Virgin America starts selling tickets

Virgin America starts selling tickets
NEW YORK: Low cost airline Virgin America Airlines, which agreed to snap its links with U.K. entrepreneur and owner of Virgin group Richard Branson to gain regulatory approval to operate in the U.S., started selling its tickets for the first flights Thursday.

The airline's inaugural flight is expected to take off on 8 August and initially it will be operating two daily flights non-stop between San Francisco international airport and John F. Kennedy international airport in New York and some five daily flights between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The prices for San Francisco- New York flights will start at $139 each way, while the other flight will start at $44 each way, Virgin America said.

The airline will operate new Airbus A319s and A320s.

Major domestic airlines tried to thwart Virgin America from taking off as its operations are expected to affect low cost carriers like Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways. Apart from economy class, the airline is also planning to offer first class tickets, which it said will be priced two to three times the price of the economy ticket. Such a strategy could easily wean passengers from other low cost carriers.

The cheapest existing one-way fare from San Francisco to New York is $189 on airlines like American, Delta and Alaska. To Los Angeles, Southwest Airlines charges $96 for advance-purchase tickets.

Chief executive officer Fred Reid said his airline will be offering top-notch service at low fares.

Some of the novelties available in the new airplanes that Virgin America will fly are satellite TV programs on screens, food items that can be ordered using an interactive menu on the screens and interacting with passengers in the plane using a chatroom. The first class will have massage chairs

The airline has drawn up a plan to connect 10 major cities in the country during the first year of its operation. This number will subsequently go up to 30. The operations will create some 1,000 jobs in the first year.

In order to secure the department of transportation's approval, the airline had agreed to restructure its financing and change its senior management in order to conform to U.S. laws that put constraints on foreign influence in domestic carriers. Foreign stake holders can have only 25 per cent of the voting stock in the company. As per the plan, CEO Reid is expected to step down from the position in six months. However, he is likely to remain a consultant for three months.

Branson's Virgin Group holds a 25 per cent stake in Virgin America.