SF Getting Its V Card

The people who have entertained us with screw-top wine and housed one of our favorite places is taking over additional Bay Area territory with the announcement that a new airline, Virgin American, will be based at SFO.

If approved, Virgin'll be the only major airline based in California, and will have the potential to create as many as 2,000 local jobs, with an eventual additional 20,000-30,000 indirect jobs across the country.

Once approved by the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration, the airline expects to operate 33 Airbus planes to destinations as yet untold (as are the design plans for their SFO men's rooms.) As holiday flights this year are so prohibitively expensive that many Bay Area folks are opting not to travel (at least, that's what we hear), the arrival of a new low-cost carrier might be just what the travel doctor ordered.