Last week I headed on down to the Dallas Opera for the Virgin America party to commemorate the commencement of service from LAX to DFW airport. This marks Virgin’s arrival into the Dallas area, which is extremely signifigant because Dallas is the headquarters for two major airlines, American and Southwest, and DFW is also:
- Fourth largest airport in the world by land area.
- Third busiest as measured by aircraft movement.
- Eighth busiest in terms of passenger transport.
- So big it has its own post office, ZIP code, and public services.
And Virgin clearly understands the signifigance of reaching into the DFW metroplex with its 6.5 million plus residents. So much so that Sir Richard Branson himself was present for the opening, and he brought along a surprise guest to entertain the attendees – Willie Nelson!
We’re glad to have Virgin enter the market, and I’m looking forward to seeing them open up more routes. After LAX comes San Francisco, where I tend to travel to often. The question remains, how will they get me to switch from American where I have elite status to Virgin where I’ll be treated like everyone else because I can’t fly to all the different destinations AA can take me.
Time will tell.
Anyway, I took a bunch of photos at the event, and here are a few.
Oooh, how fun – two huge members of the Stephen Colbert pantheon! Did you know that there is an airplane named after Stephen Colbert in the Virgin Airlines fleet called “Air Colbert”? Also, this reminds me that the “Colbert Christmas Special – The Greatest Gift Of All!” should be airing this next week on Comedy Central. Willie Nelson plays the fourth wise man in the nativity and sings about “the magical weed” with Stephen. It’s absolutely glorious!
Also, the party looked fun too. ;)
Great pictures. Thanks for sharing a world I could never be close to. Virgin just might be the next Southwest. Guess I’ll just have to try them.
Happy Holidays to all !!
Great shots of Willie — although you need a wide-angle lens to fully capture his big bandanas these days. :)
I thought richard branson had given up self publicity :P I rem him in the hot air ballon fiasco!