Virgin America: a hit that is losing money

One of America’s favorite Airlines is struggling financially. Virgin Airlines regularly shows up at or near the top of most surveys and awards for best airline in the U.S. Unfortunately for Virgin America, it is far from the best at making money.

Take a quick glance at its website and you will find a long list of travel awards it has won since starting its operations in 2007. In a time where airlines are pushing for more fees and fewer perks, Virgin America stands out for its high marks in style, comfort, and service. Virgin America has stylish aircraft interior designs, great in-flight technology, and a young and energetic staff that provides world class service.

With all of the pros mentioned above, it is hard to imagine that a company that is so well liked would not be one of the most profitable airlines. Sadly, this is not the case. In the first quarter of this year alone, Virgin America posted a $49 million loss. In its five years of operation, Virgin America has recorded a net loss of $671.3 million.

There are a number of reasons for these losses. First of all, Virgin America is still in its infancy and does not have a large network of routes. This makes it difficult to attract business travelers to fly Virgin America. While it is not able to attract many business travelers, it also struggles to attract the leisure traveler. Low price tends to be one of the most important factors to leisure travelers. Since Virgin America offers a premium product (leather seats, live TV, in-flight Wi-Fi, etc.), its flights aren’t as cheap as low cost carriers such as Southwest and Alaska Airlines.

Virgin America continues to be a loved Airline by many. If it can bring its financials in line with its exemplary style, innovation, and service, it can become a very successful Airline. Virgin America just received $150 million in funding from investors and it expects 2012 to be the company’s first profitable year. Virgin America will be an interesting airline to keep an eye on to see if it can become a profitable company.

Virgin Trains Top Service Surveys for 3rd Year Straight

For the past few years, Virgin has been providing the people of England with outstanding service on their railways. Now, through the independent research studies conducted by the railway review company Passenger Focus, their clientele are returning the favor.

Virgin Trains were voted best in class for the 6^th consecutive time in the bi-annual Passenger Focus survey, proving three years of industry domination. Virgin’s survey results yield extremely high score averages and Passenger Focus has reported an average of 91% of passengers marking “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with Virgin’s service since the beginning of the survey in 1999.

Virgin Trains have been on the up and up over the past 6 years, having doubled their number of passengers, now serving 30 million people per year. Tony Collins, CEO of Virgin Trains, applauds Virgin employees and explains that the business model is simple – “fast and frequent trains and excellent customer service”.  Collins also stressed the importance of this summer’s Olympic Games in London, which sets a stage for Virgin to showcase their world class transportation services to millions of travelers from all over the world.

Collins believes Virgin is ready for the challenge.

In addition to good customer service, the Passenger Focus survey also ranked Virgin the highest scoring railway service in personal security, spaciousness, ease of entry and exit, speed of journey, and connections with other trains.

Michael Patton has had the pleasure of experiencing Virgin Train’s service first-hand.  The POTHOS CEO agrees with Passenger Focus’ assessment of Virgin’s superb customer service and cites cutting edge technology and the progressive business plan of the company that allow for such a cool and modern travel experience.