>> welcome to san francisco. [inaudible] [applause] >> good morning, and welcome to san francisco international airport. it is a great day to be your flying to toronto. i'm the director of community affairs here. it is my pleasure on behalf of the airport commission an

airport director to welcome all of you today to this very special day. we are very excited that virgin america, which less than three years ago was just an idea, continues to expand and grow and really set a foot in the bay area. it has really grown from that small footprint just three years ago. the growth is possible because of the partnership between the airport and a lot of people and organizations, and one of the great organizations we partner with is the san francisco commission of business bureau. it is my pleasure to introduce the director. >> thank you and good morning. what a great day this is. i would like to recognize charlotte schulz on the podium. it is always great to see you. great audience for a great day to start a new service. it was three years ago on august 7 that virgin america first took off out of san francisco and really changed the airline industry in this country. it is the only airline based in

san francisco, which is something we are very proud of. the only airline based in california, as a matter of fact. once they have done since they started three years ago has changed the way people fly, making the travel experience part of the whole thing and part of what makes travel so fun. it is helping san francisco's economy, california's economy, and today, is the first international flight for virgin america, and that is a great step forward. we look forward to the partnership and look forward to long-term success for both virgin america and california. thank you very much. [applause] >> about five years ago, when the idea of virgin america started, the airport wanted to be the home base of that airport, and we went to sacramento's governor's office, and they would be if -- they were behind us 100%. it is my great honor to present the governor of the great state of california, mr. arnold schwarzenegger. [applause]

>> thank you very much. nice introduction. i want to thank richard branson, my very good friend for being here today, and mayor newsom, charles schulz, chief of protocol, and this is really exciting to fly of here. i want to say that five years ago, this idea began, and i have been very happy to have been helpful making sure that the help -- hub for virgin america comes to san francisco and california. it was a long battle, a difficult battle, it was not easy, but we got it done. this is a great contribution for the state of california. it is bringing business to california, bringing in this airline to california, the only one, and really helping us with

the revenues. there will be job creation over the next three years, 500 jobs a year. this is really extraordinary, and now, to announce, to celebrate the first international destination to fly to canada, to toronto. that is a great expansion of the business here, and to expand the airline business or any business during an economic downturn is a real challenge, let me tell you. i want to congratulate richard branson for his great vision and for being such a great business leader and having confidence in the state, wanting to expand his airline here and to fly out to other destinations. he will make some other announcements afterwards because this is just the beginning. what i also like is that these airplanes are modern airplanes, the most sophisticated and energy efficient air plants, and that is very important.

this airline consists of about 25% less fuel. that means greenhouse gas reductions of 25%, so this is quite an accomplishment, and it shows you can be successful in business and also successful in protecting the environment. at the same time, i have to say that i am a big fan of this airline business in the first place. i think this is way the future is, and they are expanding the building right now. 50 new airplanes, all energy efficient. i want to thank you again for your great contribution, so give them a big hand. thank you very much. now, i would like to bring out richard branson to tell you about his vision. thank you. [applause] >> it is a great honor to have governor schwarzenegger fly with us today. it is a great honor to be met by mayor newsom, both of whom have

done an enormous amount to try to help get virgin america established. many of the big carriers did not want to see us get established here in america. and see? they even get somebody to speak over me when i am talking. anyway. it was great that we finally got all the commissions -- permissions sorted, and virgin america is up and running, and it has achieved incredible things. we were voted best airline in america this year, we have been voted best business airline in america. that is down to the 2000 wonderful staff both on the ground and in the air that make virgin america so special. today is a great day. the first international route to canada. we're looking forward to one hell of a party tonight in canada to celebrate.

i think i can also announced that we will be doing our second international route later on this year mexican cities as well. [applause] that is the beginning of a big expansion program. there is a very big announcement later on this year about lots more cities to be flown to, but that will come later on in the year. i want to say thank you very much for coming, and thank you very much for getting up so early and everybody else for getting up so early today. and a look forward to seeing a lot of you on board in a few minutes. thank you. by the -- [applause]

>> thanks, richard. good to see you. it was one of the best decisions ever made to locate our airline in the bay area. a lot of people at the time were thinking, "what are you locating an airline in such a high-cost area with an airport flow -- prone to weather delays?" very simply, and has paid off in the environment we're in, the environment of innovation, freethinking, and creativity. that has allowed us to go with and is something very different than what has been done in the airline business. we have 1600 teammates. after less than three years. we will be adding over 1000 in the next 18 months and 500 a year for the next 18 months after that. as was announced earlier today, we will be starting new service into mexico from both san francisco and los angeles into cancun and from san francisco into kabul, so be a nice place to go down and warm your bones during the cold winter. this is really a test of the to

the great teammates of virgin america, and i know there are some around here. thank you for the worked you have done and the great service you provide, and, of course, to our guests. you keep coming back and spending your hard-earned money. we're going to do more great things here. i appreciate everything the governor did and the mayor did and has done in order to support our airlines, and with that, i think i will hand it over to the mayor. thank you very much. mayor newsom: thank you guys. welcome back, richard. i think it was three years ago, and who would have thought in the midst of the biggest economic downturn and, at least in my lifetime, one of the biggest in the nation's history that this airport would continue outperformed every other big city airport in the united states of america. [applause] it is amazing -- in 2009, we saw an increase in passenger volume here at the san francisco international airport, at a time

when people are contracting, not expanding, we are expanding at $383 million new terminal, which will be one of the greenest expansions of any airport in the united states. we're going to have a slow food pavilion, farmers market, all these valiant -- all these values that everyone loves to walk us about our being put together in this extraordinary environment and playing so well to what the government just mentioned, and that is the values of virgin america, a long-term business strategy, long-term branding strategy, a strategy that supports the environment and approach to the governance of the airline in an industry that needs a new spirit and an entrepreneurial approach. i'm very proud of their success, your extraordinary accomplishments, in the last three years helping us meet these milestones. you brought in competition, and

i believe this to the core of my bones, that competition is good. competition is really good from the customer perspective. we have seen average fares for similar routes dropped almost 1/3 since virgin came to san francisco. you brought jetblue in because they did not want to be in oakland. you brought southwest in because they did not want to be left out, either. so congratulations to richard, david, congratulations for your stewardship. to the staff at the airport, keep up the great work. to the ubiquitous team members of the virgin, you are everywhere. you guys are in my office, getting photographs, doing treasure hunts. everywhere there is a cable, that -- everywhere there is a cable car, there are divergent

people -- there are virgin people. charlotte has been encouraging that. the governor is not so convinced, nor is homeland security. anyway, thank you for being out here. congratulations. we are really proud of the partnership. one final point -- this is about jobs, and when we say jobs, do not just listen to what they just said. it is not 1000 jobs that they have here in the bay area. it is the multiplier effect. that is the big thing about airline business. for every direct job, they create five indirect jobs. that is why we are doing this. that is why this is a big deal. 500 jobs? ok, but we're talking about 2500 jobs every single year. the cabdriver that gets the

benefit, the restaurant door, the folks at the hotel. the entire region is dramatically benefited. governor schwarzenegger, on behalf of your team, this is the first the partnership we had together. this has paid huge dividends and goes to the spirit of the times, the spirit of our state. again, i thank you for your leadership and, richard, again for your wise decision, and, david, again for your wise decision to be here. thank you very much. >> thank you. if you would move to our right, we will have a representative officially open the gates to toronto for virgin america.

>> all right. thanks for your patience and taking the time to be here. we wanted to give you a briefing and update on our midyear crime stats. as chief gascon promised we will keep you informed to reach our ambitious goals that the chief set out with the command staff and members present. let me create a quick context. in 2008 the middle part of the year the city and county and police department decided to shift gears toward a new approach of governance in terms

of deployment of police officers using what has commonly been referred to as a zone strategy. basically saturating the areas and deploying police officers based upon statistical analysis of crime. it was not as sophisticated as it is today. but the effort has paid dividends. as a consequence we have seen over the course not just six months but candidly over the course of 20 to 24 months a substantial decrease in crime in almost every category in this city. one year doesn't necessarily make a trend but two years begins to associate itself with a trend. so, without getting ahead of ourselves, without overpromising, i don't want to leave you though with a sense that this news is new news or good news that may not continue in terms of its pace and its trend line. i want to acknowledge as well

that the zone strategy was just recently recognized by the department of justice as one of the best practices in the united states. we received this award, an ward for outstanding local police department involvement presented to the city and county of san francisco just recently. so, our efforts are not only paying dividends in being recognized locally by the community, most importantly, and by leaders throughout the city and the region and state, but now across the country. now, quickly to the stats, the chief will walk you through ain specific detail. i will say just the following. last year we saw a 54% decline in homicides in the city among the lowest rates we had in over half a century. in fact, the stats get very questionable in those 1940's, 1950's and 1960's. but they are down to the lowest

level since the early 1960's. we had crime, violent crime, part one crime in the city, drop 10%, double digits, last year. the statistics that the chief will give you today are based upon those historic drops last year. i say that to make this point. they are even more significant

working with your district captains who are also here. analyzing problems in your kennedy and determining the priority for police enforcement. this is a cornerstone of the community policing models that we have in san francisco. the one to think you because you have been an integral partner. the deputy chief was here and the assistant chief were the engineers behind this a war that is being presented. this award here represents the

hard work of john murphy as a commander that was worked. also the men and women of the organization that are responsible. [applause] the will walk you through our mission statement. i will not read it for you. i will just go through the outline. if you recall when i first came to the city, the mayor hired me with a clear mission. he wanted to make this the safest city in the country. one of the things that i told the mayor and i told the

committee is that we would come back and report on this for a regular basis. indeewe're working with the peoo achieve this. there is community policing and something that can be done. community policing is the police department and all of the participants working together, the stakeholders developing strategies, looking at the resources available. looking at the problems that are developing problem-solving solutions that actually reach

the kind of results that we see here where we have a national award. the things that we are doing here are the direct product of working with the same builders and our community board and with many other people around the city and county of san francisco. that is what community policing is all about. as you can see by the numbers you are looking at, what we did it is a year to date comparison against 2009. the numbers are even better than this because we have been able to reduce crime in the last few weeks.

there are a serious crimes in this city. and you can see that there were 22,029 crimes. now we have a 20% reduction year to date. this was compared to last year. i tell people it is hard to really conceptualize what this means until you start looking at the victimization. we're looking at this and we are looking at over 4400 less crimes today than two years ago. that equates to 4400 families in

our city that were not fit the must the sheer. to me, that has a greater significance than any thing we have today. when people get victimized, our entire community is victimized. this is what we are talking about, we are talking about real human beings. it does not whether your car is stolen or it is a violent crime. when something is taking a test taken from you, your livelihood is invaded. if your home has been burglarized and your personal effects have been ransacked, for you, for your families, that is very traumatic.

i think it is important to put this into context of the fact that there are 4400 less people in this community today that have been victimized. we are very fortunate that violent crime is much lower than property crime. i think it is important and you looked at the crime rate, this is a 60%. you see a 21% reduction from a few years ago.

i want to continue to emphasize that we need to get behind the percentage and talk about the fact that the human beings in our community today our spirit from the pain and suffering of crime. the next slide that we have, the mayor already talked about. this is a national award. i think that this is something that we should feel good about. other city departments in the police department is able to reach this. this is a point of reference for our city. with that, conclude our formal statements and we have

questions country will take questions for myself and the mayor. the first six months of the year we were up by one. today, we are down by one. the greater. to be made here is that there are 55% reduction last year