Alaska Air Group said Wednesday it will eventually drop the Virgin America brand name, a decision that may test the loyalty of Virgin customers who prized the airline’s hip and irreverent sensibility.
Alaska Air Group said Wednesday it will eventually drop the Virgin America brand name, a decision that may test the loyalty of Virgin customers who prized the airline’s hip and irreverent sensibility.
Seattle-based Alaska, which late last year completed its $4 billion acquisition of San Francisco-based Virgin America over the protests of founder Richard Branson, said the change will be made “likely sometime in 2019.”
The company said in a statement that the combined Alaska Airlines “will adopt many of the brand elements that Virgin America enthusiasts love about their favorite airline, including enhanced in-flight entertainment, mood lighting, music and the relentless desire to make flying a different experience for guests. The goal is to create a warm and welcoming West Coast-inspired vibe.”
Alaska currently pays the Virgin Group a royalty of 0.7 percent of the Virgin America unit’s revenue for using the name.
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The company told shareholders last month that it’s making good progress on combining operations of the two carriers, always a tricky process in airline mergers.
“We are well on our way, with benefits like reciprocal mileage and easy booking of Virgin America flights on alaskaair.com already available,” Alaska CEO Brad Tilden told investors on a conference call after the company reported its year-end earnings Feb. 8.
Merging the two companies’ cultures, and the expectations of their customers, may be as much of a challenge as the software — or the hardware, which is an all-Boeing fleet at Alaska and an all-Airbus fleet at Virgin.
As it completed the acquisition in December, the company rolled out a whimsical marketing campaign with the pitch that sometimes unexpected combinations can be good, like “bacon on a donut.”
In a statement Tuesday, executives described a 10-month process of research among customers.
But ultimately, said Sangita Woerner, Alaska’s vice president of marketing, “While the Virgin America name is beloved to many, we concluded that to be successful on the West Coast we had to do so under one name — for consistency and efficiency, and to allow us to continue to deliver low fares.”