New DAL Route
 

Effective December 1, Virgin America is operating once or twice daily flights between DAL and LAS.

For those wondering how they're possibly pulling this off without substantially cutting other routes, one of the flights, VX 776, is essentially a quasi-redeye that departs LAS at 1:30am (LAS) and arrives in DAL at 6:10am.

Also noticed a thru-flight being added from LGA to LAS w/ a brief stop in DAL.

I personally think LAS is a reasonable use of DAL gates. ORD would be ideal but its tough from a competitive standpoint.

They're doing it by ending DAL-AUS Nov. 30, which hadn't been doing very well as noted elsewhere.

Dart broad continues.

I'm not surprised (about DAL-AUS)...limited frequency and connection limits were a problem. Also, there is some new capacity coming on line.

I loved the DCA-DAL-AUS run and was very sad to get the call saying my flights have been canceled. I am Elevate Gold & flew that route monthly. I'm having a hard time finding anything not outrageously priced for SXSW in March to replace the 600 RT I had on VA, too .... Can't even get decently timed coach seats on anyone but SW & no way am I going to do that during spring break or SXSW! What a pain.

Disagree. It seems like a much better route for VX to be on.

Perhaps VX could offer IAD-AUS one day, since WAS is important in it's network. WN services BWI/DCA-AUS and probably wouldn't add IAD-AUS as a response since it might be overcapacity on it's part. UA is on the route but it might not be as fare aggressive.

It appears VX services AUS-SFO but not AUS-LAX directly however, so it's AUS footprint and connectivity will be even smaller with the deletion of DAL-AUS.

"quasi-redeye that departs LAS at 1:30am (LAS) and arrives in DAL at 6:10am"

for a 1067 mile flight...

Sounds like an awful, dart board-ish, flight to me. But I guess we'll see.

edit to add:

The rest of the schedule does not look too bad, especially the DAL-LAS timings. I guess it make more sense than Austin...

https://www.virginamerica.com/cms/ab...p-service.html

A midcon redeye that departs at 1:30 am? Gah.

Might still be better off than those mostly empty DAL-AUS flights...

LAS is a 24 hour city. VX might be figuring some of the younger adult group might stay up late by the casino or lounge to later catch that red-eye back home.

Given the whole demographic VX has in mind, and it's interest maybe to compete against WN on long flights when WN lacks upgraded seating, over competing against AA, I've wondered if VX would move from ORD to MDW.

There might be that demographic in South Loop and other parts of Chicago that might want to use MDW but pay a premium for better seating.

I'd assume the upscale leaning VX customer from SFO and LAX likely isn't the one wanting to stay in an ORD hotel because it was cheaper, but likely the customer that wants to stay in the Loop even if it's more expensive in the summer. MDW is closer, and less traffic from the consideration of a cab ride, to the Loop than ORD is to it.

Based on some random searches - AA has a LAS-DFW flight that departs at 12:59am and NK has a flight that departs between 1:20am - 1:50am. So, I am guessing by "only airline offering a red-eye" they mean compared to WN at DAL?

Considering their financial metrics they are making better decisions now than any other time in the past.

UA still has IAD-AUS 3x a day-- rjs on all 3 most of the year and it's always packed. My problem with the IAD-SFO-AUS flt on VA is the connections-- you waste much of the day and don't land until after 10pm. And the return is at 7am, landing in the middle of DC rush hour.

DAL, DCA, LGA and low fuel costs have all helped too.

I'm actually curious as to why VX doesn't serve AUS more heavily -- aren't there plenty of people of the exact demographic (young, techie) VX seems to court so heavily in the Bay Area? It's also not a hub for anyone.

They only have a limited number of planes...

Started new deliveries after a multi-year lull in 2014(?) or 2015.

Adding Hawaii flights. And LAS.

Based upon their thorough internal analysis (dartboard :)), AUS must not bubble up to the top xx places they are able to serve, and make money serving.

They only had AUS before because of planes sitting on the ground with nothing to do (in DAL). LAS eliminates that problem.