Originally Posted by
Pogey Bait
We have an east coast base in JFK/EWR/LGA (combined), from what I understand is fairly junior. How long it lasts, only time will tell with the Alaska marriage. Alaska has no east coast base. I know Virgin likes people that live in California, something to think about. Best of luck...no suit, no tie, to the interview. Go to Banana Republic and pick something nice out.
Alaska has no NYC base because they only have 2x daily SEA-EWR and 1x daily SEA-JFK which apparently took them 5 years of a fight just to get that redeye in, morning out flight.
EWR is soon being changed to a stage II airport (or something rather) which basically means the slots are being relaxed. Rumor I heard is that AS will do 2x daily PDX-EWR and additional flights from SEA-EWR. Even with our NYC base, this change in EWR wasn't on their radar. Per DC's update on the conference call, VX is going from 3x daily EWR-LAX to 4x daily EWR-LAX as of July. It sounds like we are all benefiting from the slot relaxation of EWR. With this additional capacity, plus the fact AS gains 12 flights/6 roundtrips from LGA, there is a chance they may actually look at this base real good. Best case scenario seems to be 12 flights (takeoff+landings) to/from LGA, 26 flights to/from EWR, and 30-35ish flights to/from JFK. They may have a case to keep a small base here and they'll probably evaluate it carefully.