Virgin America: Hello MCO & YYZ, So Long SNA

Virgin America has announced plans to fly from Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) to both Orlando and Toronto starting later this year. Toronto will mark Virgin's first international service while Orlando will be Virgin's second foray into Florida - and a route that potentially strikes at the heart of JetBlue.

Toronto makes a lot of sense for VA - good demographics, little low-fare competition - a great extension of the brand.

Orlando, while a huge destination, isn't exactly known for high yields. It is also the heart of both JetBlue (which runs a large operation at MCO) and AirTran (which also runs a large operation and is headquartered there.)

So, how long before JetBlue announces service from SFO and LAX to Orlando? Last time, it only took a day for JetBlue to announce overlapping service from LAX and SFO to Fort Lauderdale as we discussed.

And so much for Orange County (SNA) - San Francisco (SFO) flights which we chronicled here. While Virgin did succeed in running American out of town, apparently Southwest and long-time incumbent United were too much....

JetBlue coming to LAX - lookout Virgin America

JetBlue has just launched the latest salvo in the trans-con wars. Following on the heels of Virgin America's announcement of two daily Boston-LAX nonstops set to begin in February, JetBlue just announced similar service launching on June 17th.

Not to be outdone, American Airlines has also announced an additional Boston-LAX flight to the the three they already operate.

Suddenly, Boston will go from 5 daily nonstops to LA (two on United and 3 on American) to 10 - a near doubling of capacity will create a capacity bloodbath - get ready for great deals Bostonians and Angelenos....... and to Virgin America, good luck.