Alaska Airlines Sets Dates for Last-Ever Virgin America Flights
by Daniel McCarthy
Photo: Chris Parypa/Shutterstock.com
On April 24, the Virgin America brand will fly its last three flights ever, marking the end of the carrier’s 11-year run as one of the U.S.’s more colorful airlines.
Two passenger flights will leave from San Francisco and one will head to Newark while another will head to Los Angeles. The last flight, a commemorative flight for Virgin America employees, will leave Los Angeles at 9:35 and touchdown San Francisco, officially marking the end of the brand.
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Alaska Airlines, which purchased Virgin America after a bidding war with JetBlue in April 2016, will officially phase out all Virgin America reservation systems and logos from operation on April 25.
Initially after the purchase, Alaska said it would keep a lot of the Virgin brand elements, such as “enhanced in-flight entertainment, mood lighting, music and the relentless desire to make flying a different experience for guests.”
Later Alaska announced that it wanted to drive its West Coast traffic “under one name – for consistency and efficiency” and after 10 months of market research and gathering feedback from West Coast fliers, it decided to kill the Virgin America brand.
After the purchase, Alaska did say that it would outfit its entire fleet of Boeing 737 passenger planes with satellite connectivity, with the rest of its Airbus fleet to follow, and add more premium and first-class seats to its Airbus fleet starting this year.
It also said that West Coast-inspired craft brews, wines and food option, as well as free movies, complimentary upgrades, and complimentary WiFi for Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and iMessage, would be added across its fleet.
