It’s Fun to be a Virgin
Our trip to San Francisco last week wasn’t merely to give presentations and meet investors. We also made sure to carve out some time to meet with Virgin America. Boy are we glad we did! Virgin is the new darling of San Francisco International Airport (SFO), with headquarters in Burlingame, California. The airline currently flies to seven major cities on the west coast with plans to expand to up to 30 cities in the next five years.
Although I haven’t experienced a flight with Virgin America, I also haven’t heard or read anything but praise for the airline. In fact, they were ranked #1 in Zagat’s 2007 Global Airlines Survey of 7,500 frequent flyers, for best quality First/Business Class and #2 in Coach, among domestic airlines. As I commented in my blog announcing VA’s initial flight, each seat is equipped with mood lighting, a removable keyboard with a touch screen, a 110-volt outlet, an Ethernet jack, and a USB port. You can use the system to order food, watch movies, or listen to music.
The Virgin difference was apparent from the moment we walked in the front doors. We met with Kevin Donaldson, the Manager of E-commerce & Distribution, who is responsible for all of their third party distribution partners, including online travel agencies, meta-search engines and global distribution systems.
Kevin’s been with Virgin America for two years, and was with American Airlines prior to joining Virgin. Kevin provided us with some great insight on their distribution partner preferences and then gave us an incredible extended tour of the facility. We visited all of the different departments and it was truly like a High School Reunion for Dan, who ran into half a dozen former Frontier employees while on tour. It’s occurred to me throughout these various carrier meetings that working for an airline is like being part of a secret society: everybody is connected to everybody else in some way shape or form, and they seem to share ‘members’ like they share air space.
We even got the chance to visit the Controller Room to watch the engineers orchestrate the logistics of all current flight activity. It was here that we were introduced to Stephen Milstrey, who loves to work in an amongst his variety of flora (see below)! Kevin told us a story about Stephen that articulates how passionate he is about Virgin. The airline expeienced some initial speedbumps getting certified to fly, so they launched a campaign in San Francisco to rally public support. The employees wore shirts that read: The Hottest Thing in the Air Isn’t Even Flying! Let Virgin America Fly! Stephen and a co-worker upped the ante and committed to wearing the shirt EVERY DAY until the airline got certified to fly. This turned out to be almost four months! Now, THAT is the Virgin difference!
Virgin America was such an eclectic group of fun, energetic, motivated individuals…no WONDER their airline is so fun and different. Have you flown with Virgin America yet? Tell us about your experience so we can share your thoughts with our new friends at the airline.
Kevin, thanks again for being great host and a fabulous tour guide!
