Virgin America claims they are getting two gates at Dallas Love Field (the rights to which are being given up by American as part of their deal with the Department of Justice so they could merge with US Airways).
Other airlines say they haven’t heard anything about losing out on the competition for these gates. The City of Dallas denies any decision has been made.
Virgin America is running a sale on those routes anyway.
The offer is $79+tax each way between Dallas Love Field and:
- San Francisco
- Washington National
- Los Angeles
- New York LaGuardia
They are also offering 50% off nonrefundable first-class and Main Cabin Select on these routes.
- Purchase tickets by 11:59pm Central on April 26.
- Travel for Love Field – San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington National must be between October 13 and November 20.
- Travel for Love Field – LaGuardia is between October 28 and November 20.
It turns out that the Department of Justice has declared Virgin America the only acceptable recipient of the gates (should they really be doing that?). American and Virgin America negotiated an assignment of lease, but the City rejected it — they’d rather see American (or likely even Delta) responsible for the lease payments than Virgin America, which doesn’t have a strong financial history. With the federal government declaring that the gates must go to Virgin America, it looks like American will have to retain financial responsibility for the gates through a sublease even while American retains no ability to use those gates.
(HT: Joe Brancatelli)
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So basically what Delta has been doing for months?