Virgin Australia to lease more 737s

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

To confirm, all the F100's will be completely removed from VA fleet in early 2023, is that right?
I wish they held onto their E190's, I loved those planes for smaller routes.
Comfy Y and J

The leasing and running costs on the E190's meant it was the same (total) cost to run a 738 as it was an E190. VA got rid of them to take care of that issue.

FWIW one of the new 737-700s (VH-NBV) sitting on the ground in MKY at 7:30 this morning, but not in use...

 

[HS-TQE]

The leasing and running costs on the E190's meant it was the same (total) cost to run a 738 as it was an E190. VA got rid of them to take care of that issue.

FWIW one of the new 737-700s (VH-NBV) sitting on the ground in MKY at 7:30 this morning, but not in use...

Like with the 737s, half the E190s were leased and the rest were mortgaged (formerly owned).

They were disposed of during Borghetti's time and they were STILL paying the leases and mortgages on the E190 during that time up till voluntary administration.

Falko Regional according to the records was the lessor of the leased ex-VA E190s.
The mortgaged (ex-owned) ex-VA E190s were eventually on-sold to Nordic Aviation Capital (in turn leased out to SA's regional affiliate Airlink SA).

 

[pauly7]

The leasing and running costs on the E190's meant it was the same (total) cost to run a 738 as it was an E190. VA got rid of them to take care of that issue.

Economics were one issue but the original Virgin entity also had huge engineering and subsequent reliability issues with them for some reason as well.

Clearly Qantas/Alliance are not having the same problems.

 

[AIRwin]

FWIW one of the new 737-700s (VH-NBV) sitting on the ground in MKY at 7:30 this morning, but not in use...

Ferried back to BNE this afternoon as VA9904...

 

[AIRwin]

I’m flying BNE to HBA on Saturday, paid for J, and it’s been swapped to the 737-700 all Y

Swapped back to 737-800 (VH-YVD) thanks to 737-700 (VH-NBV) being out of service in MKY?

 

[cove]

We dream that Virgin will bring back the A330 wider body jet for the longer flights out of PER but it looks like they love having a complete fleet of 737s.

 

[serfty]

We dream that Virgin will bring back the A330 wider body jet for the longer flights out of PER but it looks like they love having a complete fleet of 737s.

Maybe you can fly to East Coast on SQ with an overnight at Raffles. You can earn Velocity points that way.

 

[cove]

Yes @serfty we talk about doing this when Qantas is using gouge pricing for the PER-SYD route. We have millions of QF points but they have been massively devalued recently. Kris Miles are now worth multiple times more than Qantas points.

 

[antycbr]

We dream that Virgin will bring back the A330 wider body jet for the longer flights out of PER but it looks like they love having a complete fleet of 737s.

Unfortunately the A330 is simply too much aircraft for VA domestic with their current market share. The lease prices that VA had on them were also some of the highest in the industry.

 

[cove]

Hanging in the air with strong headwinds in a 737 is not that pleasant when we are flying SYD-PER.

 

[antycbr]

Hanging in the air with strong headwinds in a 737 is not that pleasant when we are flying SYD-PER.

Then QF (with associated premium) is your current option, however there’s always a non-zero chance of substitution to a 737.

In the US and European markets narrowbody aircraft do these type of sectors or longer, there’s nothing special about PER.

VA need rigorous financial discipline - something Borghetti couldn’t achieve. A330s were great for passengers but contributed to eye watering losses.

 

[cove]

Yes I know that old Virgin failed badly with too many plane types and could not even dream of making a profit.
i did love old Virgin’s A330 business class.
We have Qantas A330 business class next month and QF price their 737 at the same price which is quite ridiculous.
I would get very annoyed if the planes we picked get downgraded to 737.

 

[jase05]

Then QF (with associated premium) is your current option, however there’s always a non-zero chance of substitution to a 737.

In the US and European markets narrowbody aircraft do these type of sectors or longer, there’s nothing special about PER.

VA need rigorous financial discipline - something Borghetti couldn’t achieve. A330s were great for passengers but contributed to eye watering losses.

Agree with the A330’s, they were a truly wonderful experience but a huge drain on finances for VA.
There are however some pretty decent narrow body configurations going around though and I would hope at the very least VA have done some feasibility studies and research into perhaps something similar as other airlines have.

 

[lovestotravel]

We have Qantas A330 business class next month and QF price their 737 at the same price which is quite ridiculous.
I would get very annoyed if the planes we picked get downgraded to 737.

3 out of my last 4 QF trips were downgraded to the 737, another 2 were downgraded for January next year, so that's the end of QF for me

 

[cove]

We may try PER-SIN-SYD when we are retired. Cannot do it while we are both working.
We are building our stash of Kris Miles…

 

[antycbr]

We may try PER-SIN-SYD when we are retired. Cannot do it while we are both working.
We are building our stash of Kris Miles…

This routing is usually only seen PER-Asia-MEL when either Freo or the Eagles are in the AFL finals!

 

[Harrison_133]

Flew on VH-IJU recently. The all grey slimline seats from Tiger have been swapped out for seats that are the same model as the SilkAir ones. Definitely a lot more comfortable than the slimline ones they’ve been trialing.

 

[HS-TQE]

On a related note, QF withdrew its application for the spare 172 seats to Bali, which was to be used on upgrading SYD-DPS to seasonal A330.

IASC subsequently awared it to VAi - they will use it to double MEL-DPS frequency to double daily 738s.

This could see complaints by some of the PER based folk across social media - but as pointed out previously VA are very hesitant to enter a crowded route which is a very heavy LCC orientated (AirAsia Indonesia/Jetstar) which include the Hybrid/LCCs like VA themselves (Batik Indonesia/Malaysia).

 

[Saab34]

MEL-DPS would be an absolute cash cow at the moment vs Perth.

I am not seeing anything sub $1500 return until Feb.

 

[pangwen]

IASC subsequently awared it to VAi - they will use it to double MEL-DPS frequency to double daily 738s.

I don't think that's quite right. They will use it to provide double daily 738s on the MEL-DPS route, but it is not a doubling of service. They are currently at 13 flights per week, and the increase will take them to 14 flights per week (2 flights per day).

This is an extract of VA's application:

In this regard, the Virgin Group currently holds 4752 seats per week on the Indonesian route (approximately 19 per cent) versus 20,076 seats per week held by the Qantas Group (approximately 80 per cent). This enables the QF Group to operate a triple daily MEL-DPS service, while the Virgin Group is not quite operating a double daily MEL-DPS service, with 13 flights per week.
...
Allocating the remaining 172 seats per week in available capacity on the Indonesia route, would enable Virgin Australia to introduce an additional B737-800 service per week between MEL and DPS, providing a double daily service, whilst also supporting greater efficiency through the operation of 28 flights per week.