Are you in the Know?? Email

[kamchatsky]

And you have got to love the speculation :mrgreen: .

• Starting a new global alliance to compete with OW, *A and SkyT, with initial members being Aeroflot, Garuda, Kenya Airlines and Royal Congo Airways

I thought Aeroflot and Kenya is already part of SkyTeam?

 

[jakeseven7]

watching and trying not to laugh.

Damn I'm guessing from that you mean the announcement isn't going to be that exciting.....?

How about:

Changing the 777 to the 787? (Please!)

Merging with Virgin Atlantic? (Singapore are looking to offload it...)

 

[SeaWolf]

I think even if we do get the much desired *A connection, it's unlikely to be a case of 'Hey, as of tomorrow we're part of *A' and more likely to be, "Over the next year or two we'll be going through a series of changes that will end with us becoming part of *A".

However, I think the status program seems a reasonably good candidate, and getting a Lounge in Perth would make me very happy. But I think on that one, it's not a lack of desire on Virgin's part and more a case of obstacles to getting the space etc.

 

[d15.in.oz]

Merging with Vigin Atlantic? (Singapore are looking to offload it...)

I must admit that I have been wondering about SIAL's timing...but more so the possibility of them selling out of VS in a deal that would give it Branson's bit of DJ (with Virgin brand licensing requirements removed), and at the same time - taking the rest of DJ out of TOLL's hands.

Then we would end up with a cosy (multi-branded) duopoly again - QF/JQ & SQ/TT/TR (plus the absorbed DJ). As I reckon QAN & SIAL both have designs on being the prominent panAsian airline operator, SIAL would be looking to counter QAN's strength in its home territory.

Anyway such an announcement would not come from DJ, so I have gone OT, again.

 

[crazydave98]

Damn I'm guessing from that you mean the announcement isn't going to be that exciting.....?

How about:

Changing the 777 to the 787? (Please!)

Merging with Virgin Atlantic? (Singapore are looking to offload it...)

Look, this thread started because some of you were asked to confirm your mail address and has turned into speculation that VB is about to announce its membership of Star Alliance. The totally unrelated event referred to in Sydney on 26 July 2007 is exactly what it says on our website - to announce the name of the international airline. And members start saying "it had better be good after all this build up and antipation" and "Virgin are good at talking things up". Gimme a break.

CrazyDave

 

[StevePER]

Damn I'm guessing from that you mean the announcement isn't going to be that exciting.....?

They have probably just come up with some new jokes for the safety demo.

 

[NM]

Look, this thread started because some of you were asked to confirm your mail address and has turned into speculation that VB is about to announce its membership of Star Alliance...

Isn't the Internet a wonderful rumour-mill

 

[NM]

I thought Aeroflot and Kenya is already part of SkyTeam?

Dunno. I have never considered using SkyTeam ...

But it was just a good a story as most of the others being bandied around in this thread.

 

[stuartfaz]

Look, this thread started because some of you were asked to confirm your mail address and has turned into speculation that VB is about to announce its membership of Star Alliance. The totally unrelated event referred to in Sydney on 26 July 2007 is exactly what it says on our website - to announce the name of the international airline. And members start saying "it had better be good after all this build up and antipation" and "Virgin are good at talking things up". Gimme a break.

CrazyDave

Damn. Well there'll always be the dream...

Anyway I have a general DJ question for CrazyDave, and anyone else who wants to take a stab at it.

Do you reckon that this preiod over the next few months is going to be somewhat of a defining moment for DJ? I mean, for a while now it seems like they have tried to be too many things, trying to take on Jetstar with the leisure market at the same time as challenging Qantas for the business types.

Is it enough for them to be this kind of middle-ground for both parties, or, now that Tiger's in the game, will we see DJ leave JQ behind and go 1 on 1 with QF?

Maybe that's why DJ has spared itself of the headless-chook-esque panic that Jetstar is going through now.


Actually thats several questions...

Oh well, knock yourselves out regardless.

 

[wallacej]

Look, this thread started because some of you were asked to confirm your mail address and has turned into speculation that VB is about to announce its membership of Star Alliance. The totally unrelated event referred to in Sydney on 26 July 2007 is exactly what it says on our website - to announce the name of the international airline. And members start saying "it had better be good after all this build up and antipation" and "Virgin are good at talking things up". Gimme a break.

CrazyDave

This is what the email said:
Updating your details by 5pm on Friday 27 July 2007, will ensure that you'll receive some exciting news about the dynamic and ever evolving Velocity Rewards program - along with all our other valued Members.

The email certainly eludes to some exciting news about their rewards program... then I speculate that there is also something else as per the email.

I bow of course to greater knowledge, and that naming the airline is a seperate event, as Dave says, but I hope they will be making further announcments to the velocity program as per the email.

Of course this email could simply mean that you can earn points on this new airline!!! That will be dissappointing to say the least.

 

[kamchatsky]

This is what the email said:
Updating your details by 5pm on Friday 27 July 2007, will ensure that you'll receive some exciting news about the dynamic and ever evolving Velocity Rewards program - along with all our other valued Members.

The email certainly eludes to some exciting news about their rewards program... then I speculate that there is also something else as per the email.

I bow of course to greater knowledge, and that naming the airline is a seperate event, as Dave says, but I hope they will be making further announcments to the velocity program as per the email.

Of course this email could simply mean that you can earn points on this new airline!!! That will be dissappointing to say the least.

The new super gigantic fantastic dynamic lifechanging most exciting announcement will be:

- Now you can use Velocity points to purchase inflight food and drinks; and
- Special discount in velocity points when buying "Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson" whilst inflight! Redeem your points whilst inflight NOW!

Hehe.

 

[Mal]

watching and trying not to laugh.

Hope we gave your staffers some giggles and Qantas some shocks

 

[jakeseven7]

Damn. Well there'll always be the dream...

Do you reckon that this preiod over the next few months is going to be somewhat of a defining moment for DJ? I mean, for a while now it seems like they have tried to be too many things, trying to take on Jetstar with the leisure market at the same time as challenging Qantas for the business types.

Is it enough for them to be this kind of middle-ground for both parties, or, now that Tiger's in the game, will we see DJ leave JQ behind and go 1 on 1 with QF?

Well a couple of things from todays AFR.

- Singapore is looking to be selling off some of Virgin Atlantic.
- Freeing up some (more) $
- Toll is looking to sell of some (all if Tiger gets nasty?) of Virgin Blue
- Richard Branson isn't as interested as he was before in Blue but apparently wants some more of Atlantic
- If Singapore sells off more of Atlantic, the Virgin name may become available to Blue to use finally on international routes
- Singapore are apparantly stalking Blue
- Blue are considering launching an ultra low cost carrier in Oz

From all this, maybe Singapore will buy into Virgin Blue, use Tiger to first drive the price down a bit then once they are in control/have a stake, move DJ to compete with QF and Tiger can become the ultra low cost carrier they apparantly are looking to start up....?

Just thoughts!

(And some ownership stability might be nice for DJ staff)

 

[stuartfaz]

Well a couple of things from todays AFR.

- Singapore is looking to be selling off some of Virgin Atlantic.
- Freeing up some (more) $
- Toll is looking to sell of some (all if Tiger gets nasty?) of Virgin Blue
- Richard Branson isn't as interested as he was before in Blue but apparently wants some more of Atlantic
- If Singapore sells off more of Atlantic, the Virgin name may become available to Blue to use finally on international routes
- Singapore are apparantly stalking Blue
- Blue are considering launching an ultra low cost carrier in Oz

From all this, maybe Singapore will buy into Virgin Blue, use Tiger to first drive the price down a bit then once they are in control/have a stake, move DJ to compete with QF and Tiger can become the ultra low cost carrier they apparantly are looking to start up....?

Just thoughts!

(And some ownership stability might be nice for DJ staff)

It would also give Singapore (through DJ) access to AUS-USA routes...

This may turn into a Virgin-Blue-Star-Alliance-esque conspiracy theory...we need CrazyDave here to laugh at us again...

 

[dajop]

And after SQ take a significant shareholding in DJ, the next steps are to buy Regional Express and maybe even Skywest. Then look at a strategic shareholding in NZ to so trans tasman and pacific services can be coordinated.

 

[stuartfaz]

And after SQ take a significant shareholding in DJ, the next steps are to buy Regional Express and maybe even Skywest. Then look at a strategic shareholding in NZ to so trans tasman and pacific services can be coordinated.

Puts them that much closer to crossing 'world domination' off their to-do list...

 

[crazydave98]

Damn. Well there'll always be the dream...

Anyway I have a general DJ question for CrazyDave, and anyone else who wants to take a stab at it.

Do you reckon that this preiod over the next few months is going to be somewhat of a defining moment for DJ? I mean, for a while now it seems like they have tried to be too many things, trying to take on Jetstar with the leisure market at the same time as challenging Qantas for the business types.

Is it enough for them to be this kind of middle-ground for both parties, or, now that Tiger's in the game, will we see DJ leave JQ behind and go 1 on 1 with QF?

Maybe that's why DJ has spared itself of the headless-chook-esque panic that Jetstar is going through now.

Actually thats several questions...

Good questions though so I will gladly answer them. In some ways the next few months will be defining for us, also given the developments listed by Jakeseven7. I will steer clear of the speculation about ownership, other than to add some fuel to the fire by pointing out that our share price and profitability have improved more than that of our owners and Singapore Airlines over the past year. In fact our profit margin (profit divided by revenue - because looking at profit as an absolute number without reference to either revenue &/or assets is totally meaningless) in our worst ever year has been higher than Qantas' best ever year. Our return on assets (profit divided by assets) has also always been better than Qantas - in fact close to double. So I do chuckle when our usual knockers on this site say the sky is about to fall on our heads or that Toll wants to ditch us in case we drag them down.

But on to Stuartfaz's other questions about DJ trying to be all things to all people.... the answer is not quite. There is no doubt we are in the middle of the market and trying to appeal to a broad range of people. But so is Toyota. The middle of the market is quite a big place. What we don't want to do is try to stretch it too far. It's why you will never see business class (at one end of the scale) or unassigned seating and 15kg baggage allowances (at the other end of the scale) on our short haul aircraft. We certainly want to compete more with Qantas than Jetstar, which is why you have seen the reports about us launching an ultra low cost carrier in true Ryanair style. The fact is neither we or Jetstar or even the Singaporean cough are anywhere near the low cost of Ryanair. Ryanair dominates in Europe because it is so damned big and so much lower cost than anyone else - that situation just can't happen here because we don't have the market size or features such as secondary airports (Avalon excepted perhaps but most of what JQ picks up is Geelong/Surf Coast traffic). So we are quite happy to spare ourselves the "seagulls with a chip" routine that Jetstar and cough Airlines are engaging in because neither of them is going to be a clear winner and an ultra low cost airline will just hammer home that at the low end of the market seats are a commodity.

In the meantime we will focus on Qantas. Here are some statistics for the numerically minded. Of our capacity, 52% is contested by Qantas only (e.g. MEL-SYD, PER-SYD); 14% is contested by Jetstar only (e.g. MEL-OOL, SYD-BNK; and 33% is contested by both Qantas and Jetstar (e.g. ADL-SYD, OOL-SYD). So who do you think is our main competitor? On what cough has announced to date, they will be competing (if that is what you can call buying market share with fares that they cannot sustain because they lose 50cents for every dollar of revenue) against 6% of our capacity.

The Embraers give us the capability to fly on more routes that are Qantas monopolies (wherever you see a nasty little crash8 or clapped out B717 are candidates for an E-jet) that are not likely to be handed over to Jetstar any time soon, taking us more towards Qantas and away from Jetstar. Same with long haul - that's why we are flying to the US mainland and not to Vietnam, Thailand etc.

cheers

CrazyDave

 

[d15.in.oz]

...the next steps are to buy Regional Express and maybe even Skywest...

Both SkyWest and Rex are owned or controlled by Singaporean interests already!

 

[Yada Yada]

Thanks for the update, crazydave98. This thread has indeed been funny to watch.

So I do chuckle when our usual knockers on this site say the sky is about to fall on our heads or that Toll wants to ditch us in case we drag them down.

Exactly. There is even criticism here because the Virgin Blue forum doesn't have many new posts! However when someone does take the time to post, there is generally a negative swipe taken by one of the knockers.

Even if loyal QF flyers never fly on Virgin Blue, they should not forget that they pay significantly lower airfares every time they fly on Qantas because of Virgin Blue. VB introduced and continues to maintain every-day low-cost airfares, while meeting the regular business traveller's needs. I've been flying long enough to remember the fares that QF and AN used to charge. We have never had it so good.

As for the "threat" posed by Tiger, I'd rate it about the same as OzJet posed to QF business class. Minimal impact.

 

[d15.in.oz]

VB...continues to maintain every-day low-cost airfares...

sarcasm... right? (OR do you mean low cost to them, high cost to their guests?)