Honolulu and Denver Possible new Cities
 

According to this article we might see LAX-Honolulu as early as this year! Denver possibly, too!

http://skift.com/2015/03/03/virgin-a...ulu-this-year/

Sounds good to me
 

I miss the good old days where VX would announce new cities rather than taking away cities (like PHL) or just announcing new routes between cities already on the route map (like into/out of Dallas). I guess I'm just bitter because I'm in SF and we have less flights than we used too (PDX is particularly bad now with their 1 flight a day at a lousy time). I would love Honolulu and Denver though out of SFO! But these cities are still only on VX's wish list.

I fly through Denver all the time and if I could go SFO->DEN on VX I would be thrilled. I can put up with United or whoever for the second leg of a flight, but the whole thing is just brutal.

Like I am flying to Detroit next week and luckily I can go from SFO->ORD on VX and then a quick hour to Detroit on United.

Denver: Don't care

Hawaii: This will actually make me start going to Hawaii a lot more. Like, 2x per year instead of once every 2-3 years. Especially if the flight doesn't leave stupidly early in the morning.

I'd definitely go to Hawaii more often if they flew there. I'd probably also try to take time off work to book a short trip inclusive of their inaugural flight -- that'd probably be a ton of fun.

I might do that too, actually. I'd imagine that there would be enough people doing that the F fares would be quite high, though.

Has any airline ever flown an A320 to Hawaii before? The article said that the plane needed to be certified for the flight... surely they are not the first ones to do this though?

In regards to Denver, all I can say is about time if it happens :D

For Hawaii, both the A319/A320 have well over a 3000nm range w/ Sharklets (a little less without) so it's entirely possible they could pull it off. I can't imagine it's any less risky than the 737s UA/AS/AA fly to the islands.

I'm not concerned about the safety. I was just noticing that the article mentioned that some certification had to be done. Is this because no one else flys there with this plane? Does everyone else fly Boeings and/or widebodies there?

Correct, I can't think of any airlines that fly narrow body Airbuses between the mainland and Hawaii. HA ordered a bunch of A321Neo aircraft for mainland/smaller service, but they won't be in service for a couple years.

The smallest aircraft I recall flying there in the last decade or so was United's 737-700 for a few months between LA and Hilo...a limited market to say the least...FlightAware says WestJet flies 737-700s all the time between Vancouver and Hawaii, not sure if that's accurate

Honestly I understand there has to be certification, but the whole process is tedious and ridiculous. It took Allegiant 4+ years to get ETOPS on their 757s, an aircraft virtually every airline in the US flies to Hawaii...I'm guessing it'll be awhile before Virgin enters the market

Westjet flies 737-700s and 737-800s every day from YVR to HNL. An A320 can do it just fine.

I'm sure that the plane will make it there. I'm just wondering why the certification is taking so long. If no one else flies the plane there, that would explain it.

Well, I've actually had a long discussion about this with some VX pilots. It is an open secret that ETOPS certification is underway. The issue is not also the planes, while it is part of it. I'm on a A319-100 flight from YUL > SFO on AC this week which is > 6 hrs.

The issue is crew training, not only the pilots, but the attendants. You need a sufficient number certified before you can staff a route.

VX has new 320 deliveries coming in Q2,Q3,Q4 2015. For them to support Hawaii now would necessitate dropping/reducing current routes.

Would be very GLAD to see VX in DEN:D

The crew are already being trained, according to a first officer I spoke with today. He -- one of the pilots being trained -- also said the intended launch is Oct 2015, at least to launch the Hawaii route. They'll add a frequency or two as fleet size + train crew expand.

If the Oct 2015 deadline isn't met, they'll launch a different city instead, and postpone Hawaii until 12-14 months from now.

HNL is for real
 

Alaska flies multiple 737-800s each day to Hawaii from the West Coast.

I see today that HNL is now a VX destination, starting 11/2/15.