Are You A Virgin Virgin?

I know this blog is supposed to be for current political events, but before I get to those I would like to post some blogs that weight heavy on my mind. With that said I would like to bring up the recent decision that Virgin America made to pull out of Chicago O'Hare International Airport.


Here's the deal. Virgin America is an American majority owned airline that is expanding at a reasonable pace. Their latest expansion attempt was to enter the Chicago market. However, there were no slots (or gates) available. Well that isn't entirely true. There were gates and slots available, but they were already under a long term lease with other airlines that were not willing to sell those spots to a competitor. They would rather pay their monthly lease payments on slots/gates that are sitting empty. Now, that is a probably a sound business decision on the part of the competitor airlines (United/American). I also see the saftey issue behind opening landing/take off slots (shorter time in between flights - increased risk of accidents).

My beef is not with the business decision behind allowing a competitor airline into an already saturated marketplace. My beef is the fact that these airlines have set themselves up for multiple failures and the only people to really be hurt by these decisions is the consumer. United and American have the Chicago market! They can charge what they want on certain routes (Los Angeles/San Fran) and get it. If Virgin would enter the market they would increase competition and decrease fares to these valuable marketplaces. It's a trickle effect.....business would be able to fly their employees to these markets at a lower price....familes would be able to go on vacations or visit loved ones they haven't seen in a while at significant savings. Look at the Los Angeles/San Fran to Sydney route. Qantas and United dominated that route for years and charged $1400 or more on that route. However, recently an air ban was lifted and now two new airlines have started service (Delta and Virgin Australia). Since then ban was lifted prices have dropped significantly (Delta Airlines Round Trip LAX - SYD $729 - V Australia $275 each way).

Ok, back to the main reason for this blog post. Should the US Government step in to aide in some of these decision? Now is the time! The economic effects of having Virgina America fly into Chicago airspace would be huge. First would be JOBS! Virgin America would have to employ ground crew in Chicago, more flight attendants, pilots, the whole lot. Another effect would be the the decrease in ticket prices. If a price of a ticket decrease then more people would fly therefore increasing output of cash boosting the economy. I think this is an issue that the US Government should look into.