Washington Ways: February 2009 Archives

Left Field's very first guest blogger just got off the phone with Dave Cush, the head of Virgin America. The startup was just forced to release financial data it wanted to keep secret, but our guest, Air Transport Intelligence US Editor Lori Ranson, was able to get Cush to open up in an entry she calls 'Burlingame Confidential.' That's the San Francisco suburb where Virgin is based.

Virgin America CEO Dave Cush says he is not deterred; he'll continue his fight to keep the carrier's operating data confidential even as it was forced to release data showing a $175 million loss for three quarters of 2008.  Virgin America began its campaign to keep its operating data confidential after suffering a $35 million loss for the quarter ending in September. But Cush believes that it was disruptive to both suppliers and employees for that info to reach public hands, he said  last year. He might have added Virgin's competitors, including American, United, Southwest and JetBlue - who no doubt are now pouring over Virgin America's operational data. A quick snapshot of the data released by the US government shows Virgin America had $25 million on cash at the end of September and roughly $105 million in assets. Top performing markets in terms of total passengers for January-October 2008 were Los Angeles at 34.9 million and Las Vegas at 33.8 million. Total passenger count in Seattle, which was only launched last year, reached 24.5 million - ahead of the 23.5 million in its home base in San Francisco.