Virgin links up with Malaysia

[Wunala Dreaming]

The Australian

Virgin links up with Malaysia
August 29, 2006

VIRGIN Blue will today unveil a partnership with Malaysia Airlines aimed at boosting revenues for both carriers.

The agreement will be Virgin's biggest inter-lining partnership - where passengers are funnelled by airlines into each other's networks - and gives the Australian carrier access to 47 MAS flights a week into five Australian cities.

The tie-up is expected to involve electronic ticketing as well as inter-lining of baggage from the three biggest cities and reciprocity between loyalty schemes.

 

[NM]

Should be a good move for both MH and DJ.

 

[Wunala Dreaming]

Is indeed a good move for both carriers. I'd imagine they will both do very well out of such an agreemennt.

Rumour mill is working overtime now, and is pumping out goss about MH possibly suspending services to ADL. Sounds plausible... DJ could offer ADL pax connections to MEL/SYD/BNE to connect to their respective MH services.

Regards

 

[DJ737]

Hi there

MH are indeed going into a full interline agreement with DJ with all ports on both networks accessible via one check in, so you will be able to check in at Maroochydore and forget about your bags until your arrive at your final MH destination. (but only if connecting to/from MH in SYD/MEL/BNE)

Velocity members can also earn & burn points on MH operated services.

Cheers

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Rumour mill is working overtime now, and is pumping out goss about MH possibly suspending services to ADL. Sounds plausible... DJ could offer ADL pax connections to MEL/SYD/BNE to connect to their respective MH services.

Regards

MH is certainly downsizing their network.

 

[Yada Yada]

I enjoyed a very pleasant lunch at the National Aviation Press Club meeting today in Sydney as a guest of Virgin Blue. Many thanks to crazydave98 and Amanda for the invitation!

I sat with Dave and fellow AFF member DJ737 at a table with industry people including UA's Australian manager. The main speakers were Brett Godfrey, CEO of Virgin Blue and Idris Jala, Managing Director of Malaysia Airlines.

At the end of the meeting I had the opportunity of meeting a few of the newspaper journos we often quote here on the forums and had a quick chat with Brett Godfrey.

Representatives from Boeing and Airbus were in attendance also.

Following is some information from the official media release:

• The partnership is effective 1st September 2006
• It is a comprehensive interlining agreement that will provide seamless connectivity between the 22 cities served by Virgin Blue and Malaysia Airline's flights departing SYD, MEL and BNE (phase 1) followed by ADL & PER (phase 2).
• The airlines have worked on complex integration of reservations systems, check-in and transfer handling of pax and baggage over the past 12 months. There will be full through check-in from origin to destination and baggage tracking.
• Seamless transfer of pax from Domestic to International terminals at Australian gateway ports, and a transfer lounge has been built at SYD T1.
• Unified approach to ticketing with international airlines
• Velocity members will be able to earn and redeem mileage points throughout MH's network (over 100 destinations across 6 continents).

In addition, there is a launch special: Velocity members can earn double points on flights taken between Australia and KUL from 1st September to 31st October.

I was unaware that MH is the fourth largest foreign carrier in Australia. It operates 47 flights each week from SYD, MEL, BNE, ADL and PER.

This is huge leap forward for Virgin Blue and Velocity members.

One other snippet of info: during question time, Brett Godfrey mentioned that negotiatons on partnerships with two other major airlines are well advanced and will hopefully be concluded by year's end.

 

[DJ737]

Hi there

You beat me to it Yada Yada, i was just about to post on the lunch, but as you seemed have covered the main points, i won't bother to add much else other than to also thank Crazydave98 for arranging the invitation, Amanda B for inviting me and Alicia for sending me the ticket, a very enjoyable lunch, although the speakers were a little hard to hear sometimes from where we were seated.

It was also good to put a couple of faces to AFF names

Cheers
DJ737

 

[Yada Yada]

Hi there

You beat me to it Yada Yada, i was just about to post on the lunch, but as you seemed have covered the main points, i won't bother to add much else other than to also thank Crazydave98 for arranging the invitation, Amanda B for inviting me and Alicia for sending me the ticket, a very enjoyable lunch, although the speakers were a little hard to hear sometimes from where we were seated.

It was also good to put a couple of faces to AFF names

Cheers
DJ737

Indeed - it was great to meet you and crazydave.

I saw your first post and wasn't sure if you would be posting additional info, so I posted the details that I found on the media release inside the MH goodies bag.

 

[Yada Yada]

One other snippet of info: during question time, Brett Godfrey mentioned that negotiatons on partnerships with two other major airlines are well advanced and will hopefully be concluded by year's end.

From: Virgin Blue seeking interline agreements - Breaking News - Business - Breaking News

Low-cost carrier Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd is working on further interline agreements with other international airlines, after partnering with Malaysian Airlines.

Virgin Blue chief executive Brett Godfrey said that the airline was in advanced discussions with several airlines about interline partnerships.

"By November, we'll definitely have one and possibly two more interline partners," he said.

The planned interline agreements are with airlines in the region, Mr Godfrey confirmed.

 

[JohnK]

This is huge leap forward for Virgin Blue and Velocity members.

One other snippet of info: during question time, Brett Godfrey mentioned that negotiatons on partnerships with two other major airlines are well advanced and will hopefully be concluded by year's end.

Thanks for the inside report Peter.

Any whispers on the introduction of status levels to Velocity? Not really interested in FF points and status would be very handy if and when DJ starts to service international routes. It would be great to have an alternative to QF/OneWorld if QF continue to push the JQ product everywhere.

Any clues on who the 2 major airlines are? I am guessing that they will not be OneWorld airlines. Possibly SkyTeam or *Alliance, but which airlines!

 

[N860CR]

Interesting that they say another airline "in the region". I would assume that to mean the pacific, although I guess that Asia would also be counted as "the region" so that leaves a huge number of options.

If I had to put money on someone I'd say Thai. Jetstar are targetting the Thailand market the most so it would be logical for DJ to set up a partnership with the countries national carrier. They'd have an edge over Jetstar as they could interline from places like OOL right through to CNX for instance (even HAN or SGN in theory), where as JQ is stuck with only with a few major cities.

 

[NM]

Interesting that they say another airline "in the region". I would assume that to mean the pacific, although I guess that Asia would also be counted as "the region" so that leaves a huge number of options.

If I had to put money on someone I'd say Thai. Jetstar are targetting the Thailand market the most so it would be logical for DJ to set up a partnership with the countries national carrier. They'd have an edge over Jetstar as they could interline from places like OOL right through to CNX for instance (even HAN or SGN in theory), where as JQ is stuck with only with a few major cities.

"in the region" and competition with JQ could equally apply to Garuda. And of course they are not alliance alligned either.

 

[dajop]

These "partnerships" with two other airlines - would that be loyalty partnerships or interline or both? If only interline, wouldn't the logical two choices be EK & Hawaiian?

 

[Wunala Dreaming]

Just read the daily TT PDF and it's been speculated that one of the new partner carriers could be China Southern or China Eastern Airlines (Mr Godfrey refused to comment though).

It also stated that the announcement with regards to the 2 new carriers would be made sometime in December (tentative).

Love to see Thai or Vietnam added, although Garuda sounds plausible... once Air Paradise gets up and running again they might even be a contender! (An Australian carrier/entity now has a 49% stake in AD - although I hear it's OzJet )

Cheers

 

[Yada Yada]

Any whispers on the introduction of status levels to Velocity? Not really interested in FF points and status would be very handy if and when DJ starts to service international routes. It would be great to have an alternative to QF/OneWorld if QF continue to push the JQ product everywhere.

Yes, there were some whispers but I'm not sure I can share anything about this at present!

Any clues on who the 2 major airlines are? I am guessing that they will not be OneWorld airlines. Possibly SkyTeam or *Alliance, but which airlines!

Yes, I know who they are. They won't be OW airlines.

These "partnerships" with two other airlines - would that be loyalty partnerships or interline or both? If only interline, wouldn't the logical two choices be EK & Hawaiian?

My understanding is both - full interline agreements with loyalty program tie-in as is the case with MH. Again, I don't think I can say much more. But they are big players.

 

[NM]

My understanding is both - full interline agreements with loyalty program tie-in as is the case with MH. Again, I don't think I can say much more. But they are big players.

You did mention sharing a table with someone from UA .

 

[Yada Yada]

You did mention sharing a table with someone from UA .

I did, and in fact I asked when they might upgrade the current relationship to something more comprehensive to provide better competition with QF, but the response was "not at present".

 

[JohnK]

Yes, there were some whispers but I'm not sure I can share anything about this at present!

....

Yes, I know who they are. They won't be OW airlines.

Did DJ offer you a job? :mrgreen:

 

[Yada Yada]

Did DJ offer you a job? :mrgreen:

No, but I'd be open to it!

 

[scibo10]

A question most likely for Yada Yada or crazydave, but also anyone else in the know, any whispers of whether Virgin Blue is looking at introducing a business or premium economy class?