Virgin In/out Of Chicago

[audrey2001]

Why has Virgin refused to re-start its service in and out of Chicago. It cancelled it after 9/11 and won't restart its service from O'Hare.

Does anyone know why? Was that route not profitable?

 

[whatkindoffreshhell]

VS ran an Airbus once daily to LHR and it was not profitable. ORD just wasn't a major market for them. VS likes to have multiple flights and that just wasn't going to happen at ORD because so many other carriers offer the same service plus they get feeder traffic at ORD, something that VS would never see.

 

[JFK777]

A funny thing about international airports in the United States, fly to a big international airport on either coast( Lax, MIA, IAD, BOS, JFK, LAX & SFO) and the British airlines have a greater market share to LHR. Fly to ORD or some other interior hub( DFW, ATL, DTW & IAH) and the hub airlines rules. Since VS flies to BOS, JFK, EWR, IAD, MIA, SFO & LAX with BA, the British have higher market shares then the hometown airlines. Look at Miami, BA is double daily, VS once and AA just once to LHR, AA is 1/4 daily nonstop flights.

At ORD BA flies twice a day, AA 3 times and UA 2 times. How could poor VS compete, even with VS's superior product, frequency is more important to Club class passengers. ORD is still the fortress hub even if your are Virgin or Singapore Airlines. RULED by AA and UA.