VX to exit YYZ

[FA@AC]

Virgin America is to end its YYZ service in early Apr.

[Thebean]

That lasted about 4 months longer than I expected....

Media Release:

Toronto’s loss will be Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport’s gain.

Virgin America said Friday it will add a third daily round trip between D/FW Airport and Los Angeles and between D/FW and San Francisco on April 6, using airplanes that had been flying to Toronto.

Virgin America president David Cush said the airline wants to make its Dallas/Fort Worth schedule more attractive to business travelers by adding the third flight.

“We’ve seen a very strong response to our initial schedule. We know part of it was that it was over the holiday period when everything sells out. But as we looked at future bookings when we got out of the holiday period, the demand remained very strong,” Cush said.

“But probably the bigger reason, and one that we foresaw, was the fact that we had a bit of a hole in the schedule,” he said. At present, Virgin America’s last flight from D/FW was at about 2 p.m.

“This allows us to add an evening departure out of D/FW and an early evening arrival into D/FW. It really filled out a hole in our schedule that we think was making some business travelers reluctant to fly on us,” Cush said.

The carrier knew when it launched service into D/FW Airport in early December that business travelers prefer the choice of at least three flights a day — morning, mid-day and late afternoon or evening, Cush said.

“The issue we had before was that we simply did not have the aircraft to do that in December,” he said.

But while demand appears strong on the D/FW routes, Virgin America’s Toronto flights to and from San Francisco and Los Angeles weren’t doing so well since their launch last June 29.

Cush said Virgin America’s business plan is to stimulate more traffic in markets with lower fares, and Toronto seemed to be a classic over-priced, under-served market from the U.S. West Coast.

However, it seems that Californians don’t want to fly to Toronto in the winter, and Canadians would prefer to fly to Cuba, Mexico, Florida and other warm weather destinations.

As a result, Toronto flights will end April 6, the same day that the added flights will begin operating in Dallas/Fort Worth.

[FA@AC]

That lasted about 4 months longer than I expected.

Yes, I knew you'd be surprised.

I doubt that AA will exactly be rolling the red carpet out for them at DFW, either. I wonder how they're doing there.

[chris]

Thats a shame. Im making the move from T1 to T3, and was hoping Id get a chance to meet some of their FAs

[dagger]

Seriously, I can't imagine what Virgin was thinking. They couldn't see Torontonians a US hub, they couldn't sell Torontonians on the O&D. Their FF plan is of no use, they aren't part of a global alliance, they code-share with no one, they couldn't serve as much of a conduit to international connections, and they have no appeal to the business traffic market, especially the Hollywood crowd, that flies either upgraded J or paid J. With Toronto costs and the various transborder fees and taxes, they couldn't lower their fares low enough to create serious mindspace on an ongoing basis. So long as AC matched them, or came close, they were doomed. And it's a lot easier to take a bath on a five-hour flight than a one-hour flight.

And this route had enough history to show that even lower cost airlines have a hard time going up against legacy airlines here. It takes a lot of staying power to get established on a five hour route.

[Guest rozar s'macco]

dag, I beg to differ on your soundtrack.

[ModerateChop]

I remember when American Airlines used to operate this route, way back, with B707's. Maybe AA's new Canadian interline partner will give it a go ? Maybe LAX again too, 3rd time a charm ?

[blues deville]

I remember when American Airlines used to operate this route, way back, with B707's. Maybe AA's new Canadian interline partner will give it a go ? Maybe LAX again too, 3rd time a charm ?

Many years ago C3 operated YYZ-LAX-YYZ with 757s and later expanded it to YYZ-LAX-YYC-LAX-YYZ using A320s. For whatever reason the flights were always full and employee standby travel was risky. I do not recall which tour operator sold seats on those flights but they must have been well priced. A different time and market I suppose.

bd

[FA@AC]

I remember when American Airlines used to operate this route, way back, with B707's. Maybe AA's new Canadian interline partner will give it a go ?

AA operates the route once daily with a 738 now.