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Old 03-18-2008, 09:20 AM
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vagabond
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Default Can Alaska Air Fight Off Virgin America?

Let's see what The HomeTeam is made of. I included the link to the news article because I also found the reader's comments (in SoundOff) rather interesting.

From Seattle PI:

Virgin America will begin flying Tuesday between Seattle and San Francisco, encroaching on Seattle-based Alaska Airlines' territory with low fares, mood-lit cabins, sleek leather seats, video-touch screens and -- later this year -- Internet service.

As Alaska Airlines phrased it in a recent internal memo to supervisors, "Today's competitive threat is the most significant we've faced in years." About 25 percent of the seats on Alaska flights and on flights of sister airline Horizon are between the Pacific Northwest and California.

Virgin's celebration begins with its passengers in San Francisco, who will be offered Seattle coffee, grunge music and its custom "Vir-million" champagne cocktails. The company spent $2 million retrofitting each Airbus A320 with electronics. Virgin America, which has no connection to Virgin Atlantic, is minority-held by Virgin Group.

"Seattle is an incredibly important market for San Francisco and Los Angeles," Virgin America President and Chief Executive David Cush said Monday. "We also have a product that is very much focused on high-tech, on consumer electronics. ... It is unlike anything that is flying in the domestic market."

Alaska Airlines will counter Tuesday with Alaska Spirit Day, offering employee prizes, including gift cards to Starbucks, Costco and Marriott Hotels. The next day, Alaska will hold an employee reception at Seattle headquarters.

"Alaska Spirit Day coincides with the start of Seattle-San Francisco service by our newest competitor -- Virgin America," according to the memo obtained by the Seattle P-I. "However, our battle to succeed has always been a fight against all carriers that fly on our routes, notably Southwest. We'll face more new competition from JetBlue, starting May 21."

Alaska's battle plan involves more than just engaging employees, said Steve Jarvis, Alaska's vice president of marketing, sales and customer experience.

It is countering with a new mileage plan -- "SEA Double" offers double miles on some routes -- additional flights, matched fares, better food and a new "West Most" advertising campaign. It will counter Virgin's $77 one-way San Francisco fare with a $73 fare.

"It's very Seattle-to-California oriented, and we're going to have some fun with it," Jarvis said.

Among the new flights from the Pacific Northwest to California, Alaska is adding three flights per day to Los Angeles, bringing the total to 15, to better compete with Virgin America's three daily flights to LAX beginning April 8.

"You're not late for one -- you're early for the next," Jarvis said of the shuttle model.

On the routes that Virgin America flies, Alaska will replace warm nuts and pizza in first class with fresh fruit, gourmet cheese, French toast, Asian rice noodle salad and Mediterranean pasta.

It is also trumpeting its all-Boeing fleet with "buy local, fly local" billboards.

"The message there, especially to Puget Sound, is we are an all-Boeing fleet. We are a great Boeing customer. Boeing is a customer of ours as well," Jarvis said. "The message is really geared toward the Northwest."

Because of ongoing pilot union negotiations, Alaska's key message may be lost on passengers Tuesday. While Virgin America's San Francisco-to-Seattle customers get champagne, Alaska's customers will get leaflets from the pilots claiming that the "spirit ... is nearly gone."

"You can't win the West with empty saddles," said David Campbell, an Alaska pilot and union spokesman. "They're really hoping that we'll be able to beat Virgin, and they are doing it with the memory of the Alaska spirit. They haven't done what it takes to engage us."

The pilots have been in contract negotiations for 15 months, and pay, retirement, health insurance and job protection remain stumbling blocks, said Sean Cassidy, an Alaska captain and a union vice chairman.

"We want to take on Virgin. We want to take on JetBlue. We don't want to be given platitudes and pep rallies."

Virgin CEO Cush commented briefly on the competition with Alaska in an interview.

"I think what they're going to have the most trouble competing with will be when we have the electronic platform on the aircraft," he said, adding, "that said, Alaska is a great airline. I'm sure they'll compete just fine."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/busine...avirgin18.html
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