Virgin to lose A330's and B777's - become mid range airline - really?

[HS-TQE]

VPF has just taken off from SIN and is on its way to (edit: VCV) for storage. First flight under 'registered owner' UMF Bank.

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[Must...Fly!]

737s are allegedly re-leased to VA on a fly by hour basis. I wonder if other aircraft type(s) might return in a similar way, one day. What happened to the A330 tech crews, out of curiousity?

 

[henrus]

737s are allegedly re-leased to VA on a fly by hour basis.

Not allegedly, that was something that Deloitte achieved:

Deloitte negotiated “power by the hour” aircraft leases; Virgin would maintain, insure and secure aircraft for no cost, but only pay for time spent in the air. Any lessor who didn’t like the new terms could pick up their aircraft. (Only two lessors picked up their planes). (Source AFR)

One of the two who picked up planes was AerCap who are ironically now delivering the planes back to VA. It'd be interesting to know how long this power by the hour agreement lasts or if it becomes permanent.

 

[Bagpuss]

XFE still parked at Perth Airport (Qantas terminal side). So depressing seeing it during take off and landing

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Just imagine if VA1 had kept all their 737s, and didn't give them back to their owners.
Money aside, and they were saying that VA1 wouldn't go into liquidation ala AN (Ansett).
Yes, they would have been expensive to leave sitting idle during VA (voluntary admin) and Covid, but it would have made it harder for Rex, and easier to get back into flying.
Saw my first Rex 737 plane flying over my place in Adelaide today.
Good luck to them, sad to know it was an ex VA1 plane, ...
Maybe the new Rex FF system might be a bit better than QFF/VFF, who knows.

 

[jakeseven7]

Money aside, and they were saying that VA1 wouldn't go into liquidation

Yes but there were also a lot of people also saying from late 2019 VA1 was in deep trouble and they doubted they were going to be able to trade their way out of it, even before Covid hit - including a couple of insiders posting on here....

 

[HS-TQE]

Yes but there were also a lot of people also saying from late 2019 VA1 was in deep trouble and they doubted they were going to be able to trade their way out of it, even before Covid hit - including a couple of insiders posting on here....

In addition, the 'owned' 737s were progressively being 'asset-stripped' by SQ/EY/HNA et al by borrowing heavily against them. The 'asset stripping' of the owned fleet continued into the Scurrah era.

 

[Saab34]

basis. I wonder if other aircraft type(s) might return in a similar way, one day. What happened to the A330 tech crews, out of curiousity?

A330 crews made redundant, whole lot of them. Might make a comeback as they sit on the redundancy list until 2028.

787s is clearly doing to be the next gen long haul machine.

 

[TheInsider]

Maybe the new Rex FF system might be a bit better than QFF/VFF, who knows.

 

[Saab34]

They can’t even get a online booking change platform up and running 4 months after it stopped working what hope do we have for a FF program.

 

[BNEFlyer]

A330 crews made redundant, whole lot of them. Might make a comeback as they sit on the redundancy list until 2028.

787s is clearly doing to be the next gen long haul machine.

What makes it clear that they'll choose the 787?

 

[HS-TQE]

Even Virgin/Bain has no idea whether if they'll return to long haul at this stage. QF has delayed (yet again) the return of international services outside of NZ past October.

Keep in mind Bain also part owns Griffin Global Asset Management (an aircraft leasing company) where they had bought some of VS's 787s and leased those back to VS.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I doubt there is any clear plan other than a desire to retain the slots and keep options open. If you believe that the A380s will never return, then there is a fair bit of capacity that will not return to the trans-Pacific skies. Even with depressed demand, perhaps there is a slice to be had.

Who knows. Even with successful vaccines we seem no closer to open international borders, sadly.

 

[Carrots]

What makes it clear that they'll choose the 787?

Their 737 Max order... Very likely they'll want to chop/change/amend/reduce that (again), makes the 787 a good bargaining stick.

Edit - assuming (always dangerous) they do actually go Long again.

 

[oz_mark]

What makes it clear that they'll choose the 787?

Things can change, but pre-admin they had pretty much settled on the 787-900 to replace the A330s and the 777s.

 

[HS-TQE]

A330 - XFH has been ferried from Wellcamp to BNE yesturday. Reportedly being prepared for 'return to lessor' in a few days from now.

 

[AIRwin]

A330 - XFH has been ferried from Wellcamp to BNE yesturday. Reportedly being prepared for 'return to lessor' in a few days from now.

Looks like it's being returned in reverse order (XFJ and now XFH)...

 

[HS-TQE]

ex VH-VOZ (the sole leased 77W from lessor Aviator Capital) has found a new home with Russian Charter operator Azur Air. Should be re-registered as VQ-BTK shortly prior to delivery.

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[AIRwin]

ex VH-VOZ (the sole leased 77W from lessor Aviator Capital) has found a new home with Russian Charter operator Azur Air. Should be re-registered as VQ-BTK shortly prior to delivery.

To Russia with love...

 

[Saab34]

I assume they keep the interior. Well the product will certainly live on many years then. Once lucky charter company and pax to pickup such a good onboard product.