Just a head’s up. Something seems to be afoot with Virgin America.



I’m hearing everything from a major “restructuring” of the airline to rumors that the airline is going to abandon long-haul transcons completely. (A little hard to believe since their entire business product is geared to long-haul flying, but anyway….we all know they are losing their butts on that flying…and well… whatever.)

Could CEO Dave Cush and company be out the door? Or will we just see some major shift of the product offering? Not sure, but we’ve just received too many related notes concerning the airline today and read too much chatter on our usual airline geek hangouts not to think there is not some truth behind them.

Stay tuned, as they say.

In addition, we’ve been following the latest developments in the ongoing attempt by Virgin America to block the DOT from releasing its operational and financial numbers in PlaneBusiness Banter.

Essentially Virgin had requested that the DOT treat this information as “confidential” so that it would not be released publicly.

Right.

The move was made in an attempt to keep competitors and folks like you and me from accessing the airline’s financial and T-1 data.

We all know what the procedure is with the DOT. Because the airline filed for the request, then it starts an entire procedural process that takes up time. On June 30, the DOT finally denied the airline its request. But not before other major airlines told the DOT that if they did not hurry up and deny the request, that they all would ask for the same “confidential” treatment.

Tuesday Virgin filed a response to the DOT’s ruling.

We’re getting closer.

On a quick side note, actually Virgin, Republic and Shuttle America all filed responses — as Republic and Shuttle America have also been trying to pull the same stunt.

You can access the DOT dockets here. The Virgin docket is DOT-OST-2008-010.