Virgin America Is No Longer an Airline in the Government’s Eyes
Photo Credit: With fleetwide Wi-Fi by 2009, Virgin America was ahead of the in-flight Internet trend. The airline no longer has its own operating certificate. Virgin America
Skift Take
Slowly, Virgin America is disappearing. That's bad news for its loyal customers in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other parts of the country. But it's necessary. Virgin America was too small as a stand-alone carrier to compete with the nation's four largest carriers.
Virgin America, the upstart California airline that probably did more than any U.S. carrier except JetBlue Airways to improve the overall passenger experience over the past decade, no longer exists — at least not officially.
Alaska Airlines, its owner since December 2016, said Thursday it has obtained a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration. For U.S. regulators, Alaska and Virgin America are one — even if plenty of planes still say Virgin America on them.
It's the latest in a series of changes required in an airline merger. Today, even with the single operating certificate, passengers still check-in with one airline or the other, and they use the website or app from the airline they're flying. But by April, Alaska expects to have a single reservation
