Virgin Australia & Newcastle Airport

[CPMaverick]

Flew into NTL yesterday, there were severe dust storms in the area. Visibility was very poor. I'm not sure how that affects flights though, because we did land on time (morning MEL-NTL). And the AM flights from BNE were on time as well.

 

[Oxy]

Not that I’m an airline network planner, but I keep thinking the NTL - AKL needs feeder traffic and it’s not going to get that with VA’s NTL network of BNE and mainly daily MEL flight.

Would could maybe work is possibly making it a PER - NTL - AKL - NTL PER flight.

Perth flights to New Zealand have poor connections and this would solve that. Also it opens up the PER - NTL domestic leg too.

Agree with your points but if I was going PER-AKL choosing a 737 for 9 hours with a stopover would be far from my first second or 3rd choice.

 

[henrus]

This doesn’t explain the delay out of NTL. Though I would say the aircraft went tech, but it could have been crew hours or crew sickness.

Apparently, the aircraft was struck by lightning on the way into NTL. This combined with the late inbound and nearby bushfires just made it a recipe for disaster.

 

[CPMaverick]

Agree with your points but if I was going PER-AKL choosing a 737 for 9 hours with a stopover would be far from my first second or 3rd choice.

This was my thought. PER-NTL-AKL sounds OK, particularly the dom-intl connection is going to be much nicer than SYD or BNE. But the aircraft type won't be ideal, and if a cancellation or delay happens I'd much rather be at SYD/BNE/MEL rather than NTL.

 

[justinbrett]

It’s hit and miss regarding landing in NTL at the moment. It depends on the airline and the fire conditions at the time. Numerous flights have been cancelled.

Most of the surrounding area including the RAAF base is in lockdown and Nelson Bay is cut off from Newcastle.

I’m on the 1215 MEL-NTL, second attempt. Here’s hoping I get home for the weekend.

 

[Silvia]

This is probably not going to be a popular comment but you would think that VA would have tried to have an alternative for the worst case (like the myriad of things that happened yesterday) to prevent the cancellation of a route that they are intending to promote. I guess it would have been better to delay or cancel a domestic route than an inaugural flight?

Unlucky, but I have the feeling this seasonal route won’t last.

 

[justinbrett]

This is probably not going to be a popular comment but you would think that VA would have tried to have an alternative for the worst case (like the myriad of things that happened yesterday) to prevent the cancellation of a route that they are intending to promote. I guess it would have been better to delay or cancel a domestic route than an inaugural flight?

Unlucky, but I have the feeling this seasonal route won’t last.

I don’t think it really mattered. The target audience was Newcastle/Port Stephens locals and nobody was paying any attention to the AKL flight due to dramatic events in the region. Whether it went on time or late as it did, it missed out on any significant media coverage.

The route won’t be a success as it’s a point to point service with limited connection opportunities. At least with ANZ you’d get feeder traffic on the NZ side.

 

[Mattg]

Having a look at the BITRE data for December, it looks like there were an average of 83 passengers per flight on the NTL-AKL route in December. That's an average load factor of 47%.

I can't see this route returning next year.