Air Asia to fly to Geelong (AVV)

[Melburnian1]

You make many good points dajop.

One other problem may be that the relative variability in travel times may be greater to or from AVV than MEL for residents of the Melbourne southern, southeastern and eastern suburbs.

If travelling by road (whether in a private vehicle or by Skybus or charter coach), there are probably more alternate routes available if the Tulla/CityLink is clogged.

I don't believe that's the case on the West Gate Freeway/ Princes Freeway, at least not without pretty substantial deviations that are time consuming.

I know one or two in southwest Victoria who almost always travel by train to Melbourne instead of via the West Gate because in peak periods their perception is that latter cannot be trusted to be reliable.

Absolutely agree that AVV has a huge marketing problem. It has had since day one, although those who stupidly wanted it to be known as 'Avalon Geelong' did not win: sensibly, they called themselves 'Avalon Melbourne' to try to reach 4.8 million residents of the larger city.

 

[AIRwin]

I was just browsing the SkyBus website and noticed that there is a launch special for the Avalon Express service:
SkyBus - Avalon AirAsia Express

 

[AIRwin]

I was just browsing the SkyBus website and noticed that there is a launch special for the Avalon Express service:
SkyBus - Avalon AirAsia Express

I've been browsing again for some other info and noticed that the AirAsia website shows D7 as operating from T2:

Details on our location | Airports & Terminals | AirAsia

Plan your ground arrangements easier by checking the full details of over 80 airports and terminals that we fly to. World's Best Low-Cost Airline. The best deals and cheap flight tickets available for Asia travel and beyond. Promo sale ticket deal destination routes information booking

www.airasia.com

I haven't been to AVV but think they must have omitted to remove the T2 reference when updating the airport from MEL to AVV?

 

[Quickstatus]

The underutilisation of AVV does not necessarily translate to expedited passenger movements:
AVV Delays

 

[docjames]

Owners of AVV in negotiation for another international carrier - this time to Vietnam.

Article from today’s Herald-Sun.

 

[jase05]

Owners of AVV in negotiation for another international carrier - this time to Vietnam.

Article from today’s Herald-Sun.

Apparently a MOU was signed by the Prime Minister whilst in Vietnam recently.
There was talk of Vietjet starting up a BNE-SGN service in 2019 but haven’t heard anymore on that front so wonder if AVV will go ahead first.
VJ only operate a fleet of A320 and A321’s so do any aircraft experts advise if they have the range to do AVV-SGN direct?
For Dom flights in Vietnam they are very cheap but we still avoid them and prefer to stick with VN because I’ve heard too many horror stories in regards to safety, delays, cancellations etc

 

[moa999]

VietJet have 321neo in their fleet which has a range of about 4000nm
That said AVV-SGN at 3615nm is on the edge of the range.

Also got a bunch of Max on order

 

[dajop]

VJ only operate a fleet of A320 and A321’s so do any aircraft experts advise if they have the range to do AVV-SGN direct?

I won't even pretend to be an aircraft expert, just a mere google user ... Vietjet, according to wikipedia currently have a fleet of 11 A321-neos with a staggering 112 on order. Meanwhile Airbus suggests the A321neo has a range of 7400km, and great circle mapper suggests that AVV-SGN is 6689km. Sounds OK, but the experts would be able to tell for sure.

 

[docjames]

More in the Geelong Advertiser

 

[pauly7]

Will be an important next step in cementing AVV as a true alternative to Tulla... Large Vietnamese population in Melbourne... Vietnam very ‘hot right now’ for AU tourists...

QF group would be keeping an eye on this if it eventuates given their domestic Vietnamese business (Jetstar Pacific) and the feed ins from mainline JQ and JQ Asia.