Virgin America Appeals DOT Decision with a Vengeance

(MoneyWatch)  This soap opera is just never going to end. When we last left off, Blake had told Sara that he was leaving her for her twin sister. Oh wait, sorry, my bad. This just seems like a soap opera. Yesterday, Virgin America issued their appeal to the DOT's refusal to allow the airline to keep its data confidential. Something tells me we won't be seeing their data any time soon.

If you're behind on this saga, check out my previous posts on Virgin America's attempts to keep their data private. So, to avoid having to put their data out there, the airline appealed the DOT's ruling and got angry in the process.

This is becoming a crusade, it appears, and the words are getting stronger with each submission. Virgin is saying that the DOT ignored their arguments completely and that the entire system needs to be reviewed because it's not fair.

They say, "Public disclosure is not required for the Department to fulfill its statutory obligations, and the public policy concerns weigh strongly against disclosure." They also say, bluntly, "The absence of any reasoned explanation of why the BTS rejected Virgin America's detailed and specific allegations of competitive harm and the erroneous application of ExpressJet constitute a substantial deficiency in the BTS Decision."

Wow. Strong stuff. This goes on and on, essentially making the point that private airlines shouldn't have to submit this stuff. I have no idea how this will turn out, but one thing is certain. It's going to take a long time for this to be decided upon, and that means Virgin America's data will remain private for now.