The anticipation over Virgin Americas next city with new air service is finally over — San Diego it is! Californians with a strong presence from both Southwest and now Virgin America are going to benefit from outstanding pricing for the next several months, both within the state and to destinations on the east coast, New York and Washington DC.

The folks over at Jaunted have some great inside scoop as well and we should see the “Virgin America Effect” to more cities soon. More details in our slightly irreverent “Standard Upright Position” blog.

Las Vegas, Branson, the Virgin Brand — the news of new service to Las Vegas can only be covered appropriately by our sister blog over at “StandardUprightPostion.com“…

Lower Cost Airlines are supposed to expand — it is their strategy — much to the chagrin of Wall Street who has never been overly happy with Southwest Airlines expansion plans (although they have agreed to slow down growth a bit).

The legacy airlines have been slicing capacity and handing it over to the lower cost airlines in small but noticeable chunks. Take a quick look inside the numbers and the next time you are trying to negotiate the arm rest with your seat mate on a full flight, you’ll see why this is occurring.

With Virgin America’s opening of a new trans-continental route between Los Angeles and Washington D.C., we can look for even cheaper introductory prices and the other competing airlines to protect their market share (especially the non-stops) like a lioness with her cubs.

All good news for California air travelers who have recently been getting super airline ticket prices coast-to-coast.

Of Course the ever present Sir Richard showed up for the festivities with some pithy quotes — we should all hope he shows up for many more first route launches in the coming years — that is if you like cheap airline tickets …