President-elect Barack Obama is already having a positive effect on the Bay Area airline industry.
Virgin America, the California-based airline on a mission to make flying good again, announced Tuesday it will add more flights to and from Washington, Dulles to meet the expected rush to travel to the presidential inauguration the week of Jan. 20, 2009.
"The impact of this year's presidential election is reflected in the number of people traveling from the West Coast to Washington D.C. to participate in the inaugural week festivities," said Virgin America Vice President of Planning and Sales Diana Walke. "In response to the surge in demand, we will be offering more daily West Coast flights to Washington Dulles."
The airline will operate three additional roundtrips from San Francisco International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport to Washington Dulles from Jan. 16 to Jan. 23, 2009. The flights will operate on new Airbus A320s which will allow for a 23% increase in seats available to guests that week.
Launched in August 2007, the carrier has won a list of travel industry awards, including top honors last month as "Best Domestic Airline" in Conde Nast Traveler's 2008 Readers' Choice Awards and in July, "Best Domestic Airline" in Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards.
Virgin America currently operates daily flights from SFO to LAX, SFO to JFK, SFO to SAN, SFO to IAD, SFO to LAS, SFO to SEA.
