<\/a><\/p>\n Virgin America and Alaska Airlines have announced a major expansion of flights out of the San Francisco Bay Area. This is the first full year that Virgin America will operate under the ownership of Alaska Airlines. Last year was a mostly quiet year in terms of route expansion and changes at both airlines, which makes sense with management at Alaska Airlines preoccupied with the DOJ approval and completion of the deal.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Alaska Airline’s CEO Brad Tilden has also indicated that Alaska Airlines plans to identify and publicize the direction of the Virgin America brand by the end of March 2017, which is less than 3 weeks away. This airline combination has been moving fast and Alaska Airlines has already integrated significate changes in both airlines\u2019 frequent flyer programs.<\/p>\n On March 9th,<\/sup> last week Alaska Airlines announced <\/a><\/span>several new flights originating out of their San Francisco Hub. New destinations included Baltimore, Indianapolis, Kona, Nashville, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Raleigh-Durham.<\/p>\n <\/a>Virgin America new routes<\/p>\n But these were not the only flights out of the combined airline. Alaska Airlines also included new flights for itself, including Albuquerque, Kansas City, and Mexico City from San Francisco and Austin, Los Angeles and Tucson from San Jose. Combined this is significant increase of flights. It may also be an indication of some future repositioning of Virgin America vs Alaska Airlines mix of brands. I’ve read some speculation that the airline would position Virgin America for longer haul destinations and Alaska for medium and shorter haul flights. As of now there is no indication from Alaska Airlines this will happen. The news release was completed with a unified message to both the airlines customers.<\/p>\n