=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/c/a/2006/12/27/EDG58N61H6= 1.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, December 27, 2006 (SF Chronicle) Fighting the unfriendly skies THE U.S. Department of Transportation hasn't officially announced its decision to reject the flight application of Virgin America, a Burlingame-based carrier that's been trying to get airborne for the last year, but company officials expect them to do so this week. So it's just a short matter of time until the losers -- that's you, Bay Area readers and American consumers -- are down for the count. What, you're surprised? Did you think the loser would be Richard Branson, the English billionaire whose closely held company invested 25 percent of the $177 million to start the airline, the excuse that U.S. airlines have used to lobby the Department of Transportation against approving Virgin? (There's a law -- a very silly law -- limiting foreigners to 25 percent of U.S. airline voting equity and barring them from controlling a U.S. carrier.) Branson's a winner, either way. If the Transportation Department carries through with this foolish decision, it'll be extremely difficult for the United States to make inroads into the European Union's lucrative markets. It's been trying to do so for years -- and a pending agreement could open London's lucrative Heathrow Airport to more U.S. carriers. But how easy will it be for Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic carrier is the second-largest English airline, to argue that the United States didn't open its markets to him? If Britain votes no, the whole deal's a wash, and Branson keeps competition off his routes. It'll be the turn of Continental, et al, to be on the receiving end of a TKO. Here's what else American carriers are TKO'ing, just so that they can reduce their own competition and fully enjoy next year's expected 3-7 percent fare increase -- approximately 3,000 new jobs (1,600 of them in the Bay Area). Between $5 million and $10 million a year in Bay Area spending for Virgin America's headquarters. Some $24 million in state and local taxes. The consumer's convenience of having a low-cost carrier at San Francisco International Airport. The world's first environmentally-conscious carrier plan -- Virgin America wanted to tow its planes from the gate to the runway to save fuel, and it planned to buy from the new generation of quieter, more fuel-efficient planes. Our dear American carriers have so far resisted these planes because of the costs. These are blows from which we won't easily recover. --------------------= -------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2006 SF Chronicle