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Most likely. Maybe every Y pax gets a middle seat shadow? And cabin crew will have a pick of the unoccupied Y seatsWill the 700s be load restricted
Upthread it appears to be a 2 pilot op.4 pilot flight
Most likely. Maybe every Y pax gets a middle seat shadow? And cabin crew will have a pick of the unoccupied Y seatsWill the 700s be load restricted
Upthread it appears to be a 2 pilot op.4 pilot flight
My understanding of the announcement is everybody will still be flying on a Virgin plane to/from Haneda just an old one.You may well be rebooked onto a superior carrier’s product if they don’t launch on time. Fingers crossed for you.
Seems like 9th August is the switchover date…The 737-700 appears to now be loaded on flights.
Probably will believe it when we see the Max8s actually delivered. For all we know Boeing could run into another snag.Seems like 9th August is the switchover date…
Should have made it 8/8 for the Max 8Seems like 9th August is the switchover date…
Should have made it 28/06 so I wouldn’t have to fly on a -700Should have made it 8/8 for the Max 8
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Also reflects there's economy seats mostly every day except a few days during the week of Monday 17th July and Monday 5th August.The 737-700 appears to now be loaded on flights.
Not sure if that specific article has been referenced but certainly the premise of it and your comment has been discussed at length and confirmed in this thread. But, to be fair, it is now 49 pages long.Surprised this article (unless I missed it) hasn't been referenced :
Virgin Australia Uses 737s to Keep Tokyo Slots as Hedge for Future Longhaul Asia Return
Virgin Australia has emerged a much stronger airline from the Covid-19 pandemic than it was at the outset of the crisis. A court-led restructuring ofairlineweekly.com
Why then fly a 737 to Tokyo? It’s the slots, silly. Virgin Australia has one highly sought-after slot pair at Haneda airport. Rules governing the use of those slots — typically an airline must use a slot every 90 days or lose it — have been waived during the pandemic, but those waivers are scheduled to sunset at the end of March. June 28 happens to be right about 90 days later. Reacquiring a lost slot pair at Haneda, which Qantas would certainly jump for, could take years if it happened at all.
Also, consider that the CNS-HND is also part-subsidised by the Queensland taxpayers under the AAIF, which is the same part-subsidy arrangement for QF's BNE-HND.Qantas were using both of their HND slots prior to the travel ban though and they restarted their Tokyo services as soon as travel to Japan became feasible earlier this year, so that's fair enough. If Virgin were serious about this they could have tried to get a plane or bring in the -700 earlier, regardless of their desire to use the MAX instead. It's clear that Virgin are only doing this as a last resort and waiting until the last minute before they launch services. If that deadline didn't exist, there is no way Virgin would be operating services from June. The only loser there is the consumer.
Qantas were using both of their HND slots prior to the travel ban though and they restarted their Tokyo services as soon as travel to Japan became feasible earlier this year, so that's fair enough.
a) VA discountinued almost all flying from 29th March 2020....I'd safely say ALL their int flying, don't think they were the only one.Except:
A) No they didn’t, just as Virgin they were set to start operating from the 29th of March 2020 but things turned sour and they discontinued almost all intl flying before that date.
B) What counts as feasible? If VA could have launched HND at anytime then so could QF. Why wasn’t the second slot utilised for months? This argument really only stands if you shift the goal post accordingly. VA probably assessed that their feasibility bottom line was that they needed the MAX to operate profitably, is that not operating when feasible?
C) QF HND flights come at the expense of NRT flights. So its 1 for 1 capacity, no gain at all, if QF wanted to they could fly to NRT tomorrow. Even if VA flew an Ejet it would be creating new capacity in the market. The idea being VA just wouldn’t operate to TYO at all as without a HND slot they wouldn’t be able to viably compete against QF (and JL/NH) who would then have 3 HND slots. Now we can argue all we want about the validity of this but the facts are there, QF hasn’t increased capacity in the market and even if VA don’t operate to HND out of goodwill but because they are obliged to, then in the short run it is more beneficial to the flying public for very little long term loss.
The market you mean to Japan?QF hasn’t increased capacity in the market
Not necessarily. The market is somewhat different.QF HND flights come at the expense of NRT flights
I wonder if they had not been selling the J seats on the inaugural flight until now, in order to reserve them for media, but have decided to now pull media activity around the launch so have just released those J seats for sale.