VA's five per week MEL - LAX - MEL started today: effect on competitors?

[Melburnian1]

Today (Tuesday 4 April 2017) VA23 (five times a week) commenced between MEL and LAX. It is punctual (thus far.)

Interestingly the returning westbound VA24 is timed into MEL at 0545 hours, quite a lot earlier than nonstop competitors QF and UA. Some businessmen and businesswomen may like the earlier arrival time, given that one usually has to add in excess of half an hour to get through immigration, checked bag pick up and customs, but at busier times later in the morning this can (if one is unlucky) take well over an hour. "First arrival advantage."

It will be interesting to observe over the coming months if VA manages to grow the market or merely cannibalise passengers from its competitors.

The load factors will be harder to judge because BITRE does not disclose (dissect) them down to individual route by each carrier, and since VA flies from LAX to BNE and SYD as well as (now MEL), one won't be able to calculate the percentage of seats occupied (or indeed the yield.)

One wonders what percentage of potential patrons, or their bricks and mortar travel agents, know that VA is operating on the route. My guess is many do not. VA's brand awareness may well be very low in the good ol' USA despite its existing tiwn Oz - LAX routes.

VA's history with its longer distance international routes such as AUH does not inspire - it has made an art form of announcing then cancelling routes - but perhaps this time there is room for a little guarded optimism.

The lack of a daily schedule is a disincentive to use VA. I wish transport operators (not just air) would realise that daily or better is the way to go, although in VA's case even if it wanted to it would lack the necessary number of suitable aircraft.

 

[soorox]

I'm thinking that these new flights will first take pressure off SYD and BNE, pax will simply now book the direct service if the day they want to fly is available. DL will be funnelling pax from LAX to these flights, AA will funnel pax for QF and UA has its own feed at LAX. UA has a disadvantage when it comes to domestic connections in Australia as it doesn't have a domestic competitor, however the majority of UA pax will be O&D and they have the right aircraft for the job! The 3 competitors will also have respective alliance pax to feed off from too. Yes, they are all competitors, but all have their own set of customers. What they are really fighting for are those at the back, as these airlines can easily command high yield in the premium cabins.

No doubt they will stimulate demand, VA and QF will start funnelling HBA, ADL, PER, CBR pax onto services exMEL which will continue to boost numbers further.

 

[Melburnian1]

UA has a disadvantage when it comes to domestic connections in Australia as it doesn't have a domestic competitor...

No doubt they will stimulate demand, VA and QF will start funnelling HBA, ADL, PER, CBR pax onto services exMEL....

soorox, do you mean doesn't have a domestic 'airline partner?'

I would have though most ex CBR would either fly, travel by train, take the bus or drive to SYD rather than MEL as SYD is closer (mind you, connecting in MEL is easier due to the terminals being adjacent.)

 

[whoistheg]

Just got back from LA today and i love this service.

Flew out on VA23. (It was a Full flight) on the 9th had a 6 hour delay but was SMS notified and all good, QF cancelled their flight on the same day to LA out of Melb,
plane was full but i have to say it was more comfortable than Qantas. We usually fly the QF A380 and try and get a middle row of 4 and
out of the past 3 times we have managed to get a 4th empty seat but for some reason to us the A380 feels a lot warmer inside.
This one we had to actually use the blankets. i think the 3-3-3 allows for better airflow around the cabin.

Flew home last night on VA24. full flight. Best thing about this is leaving LA at 8:50pm.. Not the usual Qantas time of 10:00pm or 10:30 or 11:30pm
Arrived into Mel at 5:15am and back home by 8am.

Great to have another direct option out of Melb.

 

[docjames]

Do we know the rotations of the aircraft? How "tightly" are they scheduled? What is done with the 777s on the two "non-operating" days?

 

[CPMaverick]

I've booked two of these RT already. Pricing is competitive and the schedule is quite good. Even being MEL based I like the early arrival, should beat the rush hour traffic into the city. And the LAX departure is better too, I always find myself with time to kill before those 10 pm or 11 pm departures.

This is the best thing VA has done in awhile. They just need to make it daily. I moved my return 1 day just to get the direct but I won't always have this luxury.

 

[Saab34]

Anyone used the new daytime flight back to BNE? Supposed to be easier on the body gets into Brisbane before 6pm. Can get connections into Melbourne by 9/10pm.

 

[Simo]

I much prefer Melbourne domestic to International be vise versa rather than Sydney

 

[liamsal]

Anyone used the new daytime flight back to BNE? Supposed to be easier on the body gets into Brisbane before 6pm. Can get connections into Melbourne by 9/10pm.

spacebar
Definitely helps with getting back into a normal sleeping pattern once your home - however I tried not to sleep on the flight and it definitely made the flight feel so much longer. I must admit I still felt pretty coughpy for the next few days after the flight. I would go for the O/N flight landing at 6am BNE time if I had the choice.

 

[CPMaverick]

Definitely helps with getting back into a normal sleeping pattern once your home - however I tried not to sleep on the flight and it definitely made the flight feel so much longer. I must admit I still felt pretty coughpy for the next few days after the flight. I would go for the O/N flight landing at 6am BNE time if I had the choice.

This is what I imagine; maybe it is better for your body to have the daytime flight, but I generally can get 7 hours of sleep or so on the overnight flight. The daytime flight would be so tedious. Unless you can't sleep on flights, I'd wager a better use of time is the overnight flight.

 

[clipped_wings]

This may explain why a lot of domestic legs between SYD and MEL are getting lighter. There's obviously no need for Melbourne pax to transit through to Sydney to depart for LAX.

Something's gotta give.

 

[Bagpuss]

This may explain why a lot of domestic legs between SYD and MEL are getting lighter. There's obviously no need for Melbourne pax to transit through to Sydney to depart for LAX.

Something's gotta give.

I always seem to notice that when flying international any domestic legs seems to be priced extremely low. ( IE SYD - LAX is $995 return, PER - LAX is $1,100).
What would give is potentially running less aircraft (E-Jets exiting the fleet). Syd - Mel can be every 15 minutes in peak and to be honest every 30 minutes is probably perfectly fine.

 

[Melburnian1]

I always seem to notice that when flying international any domestic legs seems to be priced extremely low. ( IE SYD - LAX is $995 return, PER - LAX is $1,100)....

At least for short flights on the east coast, many international airlines who may (for example) operate from SYD but not, say, from MEL have historically wanted to get you on board - so the domestic leg is free, or almost free.

When I have flown to LAX on VA or others prior to nonstop MEL - LAX that VA now operates, the fare ex MEL with a domestic flight up there has been pretty much the same as if I commenced the trip in SYD.

 

[pauly7]

I've got a flight coming up in few weeks so can report on loads, but my boss just flew - said J was half empty and Y the same.... hope they are in it for the long haul this time!

On the plus side should keep award avails good...

 

[pauly7]

This may explain why a lot of domestic legs between SYD and MEL are getting lighter. There's obviously no need for Melbourne pax to transit through to Sydney to depart for LAX.

Something's gotta give.

They cancel a lot of these flights as well I've noticed.... who knows if directly related.

 

[clipped_wings]

I always seem to notice that when flying international any domestic legs seems to be priced extremely low. ( IE SYD - LAX is $995 return, PER - LAX is $1,100).
What would give is potentially running less aircraft (E-Jets exiting the fleet). Syd - Mel can be every 15 minutes in peak and to be honest every 30 minutes is probably perfectly fine.

My thoughts exactly.