AAddicted

DALLAS -- Sir Richard Branson said the Virgin America brand will live on and become another airline, if Alaska Airlines phases out the “Virgin” name after its merger is complete later this year.

“I hope the Virgin America brand never goes away,” Branson told WFAA at an event in Dallas Monday night. “If Alaska decides to drop the brand – because we didn’t actually want the sale to happen – we’ll start again and Virgin America will very much back here.”

Rest of Article:
http://www.wfaa.com/news/nation/bran...away/337134550

Eastbay1K

Does one think that AS won't own the Virgin brand name / logo as it relates to a USA-based airline? Of course, AS could sell it.

sfozrhfco

Virgin Group owns the name. If Alaska wants to use it, they have to pay the licensing fee.

GrayAnderson

Yeah...there's an agreement in place between Virgin Group and Virgin America for the use of the name. Either side could break that: Virgin America/Alaska by not paying for the name or Virgin Group, arguably, if they feel that service standards aren't being met. The latter case would be reminiscent of a dust-up between Amtrak and ATSF in the mid-70s: Amtrak downgraded elements of service on the Super Chief (formerly ATSF's premiere train) and so ATSF revoked the use of the Super Chief name from Amtrak. I suspect there's a clause in the existing contract allowing SRB or Virgin Group to revoke the use of the name if service quality really collapsed.

ucdtim17

That seems like a much more difficult/less profitable endeavor than it was the first time around, and still VX lost money for most of its existence. I don't know where he would go - no room at SFO and LAX this time around. Some former midwest hub (CVG, STL) or growing sunbelt city (AUS, RDU)? IAD?

sfozrhfco

Branson, MO will be the new HQ. Press release came out last year.

http://blog.virginamerica.com/blog/branson-bound/

AS Flyer

all of this. PLUS, Richard Branson would have a harder time finding U.S. backers for an airline in the U.S. given his most recent experience. Actually, look at any of his airlines - not a great track record. I admire his vision for what he would like air travel to be but, at the end of the day, the passengers vote with their $$$ and while people want lots of amenities, they'll settle for very little if the price is right. That doesn't equate to crazy profits - or really much in the way of profits at all.

GrayAnderson

The rub is that SRB seems to have been ahead of the curve in at least one respect, namely the mounting gulf between Y and F (VX's F may have been surpassed on the "premium Transcon" routes, but I'm noticing a slow creep of better "F+" options out there, be it DL's modest spread of lie-flat routings or B6's Mint). They got smacked with a bit of a first-mover curse, but...good God, I remember how blown away I was on that first trip. I think the overarching trend is towards a truly impressive F/Y gulf and he did twig that.

Part of the losses were timing-based (rolling an airline out right before the market crashed was not a winner) and part was down to the fact that the "obvious" opening has been for a Spirit/Allegiant-type carrier (even B6 started out on that side of things with a coach-only business model...which is part of what underwhelmed me with them...and IIRC even B6 has had some profit margin issues). But yeah, part of it is the simple fact that the top tier of airlines in the US has become so consolidated that other folks do have a spot of trouble competing.

Toshbaf

Sir Richard shouldn't charge so much so Alaska would give up its name and take the Virgin name.

Toshbaf

If Sir Richard charges a lot, then Alaska should use the Virgin name only for SFO and LAX transcons

FluxTZ

This smells like an April fools joke. I don't remember reading this in any other trade articles.... Was it legit?

GrayAnderson

It was a joke, and I think we were having a joke based on it as well.

beckoa

AS give up its name? An airline with its roots from 1932 and that has not declared bankruptcy?

Jeff767

You would probably expect Delta to have a few things to say about Branson starting up a competing airline in the US since they are pretty deeply in bed together.

BearX220

But the fact that VX competed against DL in the US did not stop DL from taking a 49% position in VS.