Virgin Atlantic suspends its route from London to Austin because it says the city’s tech boom is over::Virgin Atlantic in a Friday statement said that in Austin “demand in the tech sector is not set to improve in the near term.”

  • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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    1 year ago

    My employer had an office there. We actually closed it down recently and offered relocation to all our employees at this office. Before that, we had people leave that office voluntarily because they were concerned about their individual liberties, generally healthcare and access to family planning services.

    A lot of our tech employees are around that age where they’re starting families and raised some important access concerns to us.

    We soon realized that there just wasn’t a compelling enough reason to stay in Austin, the office was shrinking… so we closed up.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I thought we were the only one! We had a small office for about 10 employees. We were planning on expanding and buying a building. But then, we just made them all remote and stopped that Texas expansion.

      Why? Because it’s REALLY F’en hard to have a tech company when power can’t be guaranteed.

      • Mafflez@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        It’s almost like Texas in general is a shit hole and tech companies shouldn’t bother with the state in general. I have no clue why there even was a boom in Austin due to the stupidly shit power grid in the first place.

  • popcap200@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Yeahhhhh, having a failing power grid ain’t great for tech, banning abortion doesn’t make tech workers happy, plus the myriad of other issues. I can see why their state is losing tech workers.

  • Bri Guy @sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    For a few years it seemed like every tech bro and their mother was moving into Austin

      • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
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        1 year ago

        It sucks because Texas was actually one of the first places the integrated circuit was developed. It’d been hypothesized and speculated upon prior to its invention, but my understanding is that the first effectively integrated circuit was designed by Jack Kilby and built by Texas Instruments; followed shortly by Robert Noyce in California (who made the first true integrated circuit).

  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    London to Nashville is next at the rate they’re conservashitting the state. And yes, they’ve been moving here after they piled out of Austin, and Tennessee is about as worse as a shithole as Texas. Hell, our power company is reaching for that customer service level that ERCOT has. Rolling blackouts are thing here.

    I’m going to Colorado at the turn of the year.

    • Alchemy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      What part of Colorado? There is bad areas around here that you could end up with the same conservashit with a different scenery. BoBo the clown is from the western slope, ken buck represents the entire eastern area aka west kansas.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Over the past decade, Austin’s national reputation has become increasingly tied to the tech sector, with companies lured by its highly educated workforce and Texas-sized tax incentives.

    But in a major decision, Virgin Atlantic on Friday announced that it would end its nonstop route from Austin to London less than two years after first offering the flights.

    (tldr: 3 sentences skipped)

    Such a statement is a reflection of significant changes in Austin, which just two years ago had arguably the buzziest commercial real estate market in the United States.

    (tldr: 1 sentences skipped)

    The report also noted the looming issue of vacancies in the lion’s share of the new commercial real estate projects under construction.

    (tldr: 5 sentences skipped)

    Virgin Atlantic may be axing its London route from Austin, but British Airways remains, connecting the two cities with nonstop flights.

    With the Austin route coming to a close, Virgin Atlantic announced that it would beef up its service between London and Miami for the summer 2024 season, increasing the number of flights between the two cities from 11 to 14.


    The original article contains 377 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 52%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!