Alaska Airlines and Virgin America are revamping their
services out of Dallas Love Field, adding four routes to boost service 40
percent and swapping Virgin America aircraft out of many routes from the
airport.
Beginning this summer and through early next year, Alaska 76-seat
Embraer 175 jets will replace Virgin America flights on several Love Field routes,
including those to New York's LaGuardia Airport and Washington Reagan National
Airport. That frees up the larger Virgin America aircraft on new
long-haul flights from San Francisco and new service between Los Angeles
and Philadelphia.
"Prior to [the] merger, Virgin America lacked a
regional aircraft to take advantage of midsized routes," according to
Alaska Airlines VP of capacity planning John Kirby. ""The fuel-efficient
E176 jet has the same amenities and features of a mainline jet and is perfectly
suited for Love Field."
Alaska does plan to
retire the Virgin America brand, but in the meantime, it will continue to
operate three daily Virgin America flights between Love Field and each Los
Angeles and San Francisco.
Alaska
also is adding service from Love Field on E175 aircraft: a second daily
round-trip to Seattle beginning Aug. 27, a daily round-trip to Portland
beginning Aug. 27, a daily round-trip to San Diego beginning Feb. 16, and a
daily round-trip to San Jose beginning Feb. 16.