Virgin America celebrated new service routes to Los Angeles and San Francisco with a full-on party at Newark airport, where they began flying planes to the West Coast last week.
The airline threw a red carpet on top of the drab grey one, served mimosas and champagnes from a sidebar near gate A33, and played party track, "Like A G6" to get passengers waiting in line to fly to California really going.
Virgin adding these locations to their destination docket has led them into direct competition with United Airlines, who have adjusted their prices since Virgin's announcement of this new path.
Their rates have already dropped 40 percent, reports Today.com.
"United connects Newark Airport and the New York area to more destinations around the world with more flights than any other airline. We offer the most frequent service from Newark to Los Angeles and San Francisco...we welcome the new competition," United told CNBC.
English business magnate and chairman of Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson says his company has matched the competitors' prices, in a recent interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box."
"Obviously, we've matched the fares," he said. "The public is going to be very, very happy with that."
Never one to skim over his sentiments, Branson touted this new route as being quite the premiere one for Virgin.
"It's going to be the best terminal in Newark," he said. "They're going to make this terminal look beautiful."
He gestured emphatically, raising his palms to the ceilings then throwing them back down towards the ground, for effect.
Their first move in revamping this part of the airport to accommodate the new route is to try cutting down the security line at TSA. At the present time, passengers must line up single-file and wait in a narrow hallway for a fair amount of time.
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