Virgin Australia Fleet Update Thread.

[markis10]

As the fleet update continues please discuss developments here! Here is the current situation based on todays results presentation:

 

[markis10]

VH-YIB arrives tomorrow into BNE, adding another BSI to the mix.

 

[LiamR]

VH-YIB arrives tomorrow into BNE, adding another BSI to the mix.

That's great. Means there is 6 BSI aircraft if I recall?

I'm finding it hard to believe that they will have the rest of the 737s refitted by the end of the year. They haven't started yet, with maximum refitting of 3 per week at the Brisbane facility.

Does anybody think they will complete it on time?

 

[Noob]

I do hope they eventually increase their long haul fleet - another five 777-300ER would be awesome.....I would love to be able to fly SYD-LHR all on Virgin Australia metal. Their long haul operations are doing well, hopefully that will encourage further investment in the fleet within the next few years.

 

[737NG]

BZG is the first aircraft that has been retrofitted with the new J and Y seats, bulkhead and new carpets. It is going to be flying in the next day or so. The rest of the rogues are being fitted out one at a time and should be completed in the next six or eight weeks. These aircraft are being fitted out in Christchurch.

 

[LiamR]

BZG is the first aircraft that has been retrofitted with the new J and Y seats, bulkhead and new carpets. It is going to be flying in the next day or so. The rest of the rogues are being fitted out one at a time and should be completed in the next six or eight weeks. These aircraft are being fitted out in Christchurch.

Do you know what happened with the Brisbane facility? Last I heard it was ready to go, just awaiting approval from the authorities. Did something go wrong?

 

[737NG]

Not sure where you got your information from about BNE carrying out the retrofits, they were always going to be carried out CHC.

 

[markis10]

BZG is the first aircraft that has been retrofitted with the new J and Y seats, bulkhead and new carpets. It is going to be flying in the next day or so. The rest of the rogues are being fitted out one at a time and should be completed in the next six or eight weeks. These aircraft are being fitted out in Christchurch.

Cool stuff, its all happening at DJ! Better grab some PE fares before they turn into J level fares.

 

[LiamR]

Not sure where you got your information from about BNE carrying out the retrofits, they were always going to be carried out CHC.

My understanding is that Virgin have a maintenance hangar that can refit 2-3 aircraft at a time. This was well known within the airline.

The repainting however, was always going to occur at CHC.

 

[737NG]

Liam, the Virgin hangars are fully booked each night with scheduled overnight maintenance, hence the reason the CHC facilility is being used.

 

[Justchecking]

Nice to see the old jet getting refitted, so how many of those can they do a month sending them to CHC?

 

[straitman]

Nice to see the old jet getting refitted, so how many of those can they do a month sending them to CHC?

See post #5 above.

 

[Noob]

BZG is the first aircraft that has been retrofitted with the new J and Y seats, bulkhead and new carpets. It is going to be flying in the next day or so. The rest of the rogues are being fitted out one at a time and should be completed in the next six or eight weeks. These aircraft are being fitted out in Christchurch.

Hey mate, thanks for the update and welcome to the site

By rogues do you mean to rest of the 737 fleet that does not yet have the new interior? Hence, the whole 737 fleet will be retrofitted with the new interior in the next six to eight weeks? Does that include -700s and -800s?

I also heard the same rumor from flight crew as LiamR - but, like I said, a rumor, and obviously it wasn't anything more than that

Cheers, Noob

 

[Justchecking]

By 'rogues' I think he means only the newest 737 aircraft just before the BSI deliveries. These are the ones that were never fitted with the red seats (and much discussed on here) not the entire fleet. I don't now how many there are, hence my question. Trying to gauge how long it would take them to convert the entire fleet.

 

[737NG]

Correct Just checking, the 10 aircraft delivered prior to the relaunch with the blue seats are the rogues. The rest of the fleet will start cycling through latter this year.

 

[markis10]

Surely that means an announcement on IFE is close?

 

[maninblack]

Cool stuff, its all happening at DJ! Better grab some PE fares before they turn into J level fares.

I have experienced the new cabin in PE, which is certainly what it is. (OOL-MEL a few weeks ago) It is not a J product even by domestic standards. The seat has minimal recline and adjustability, no footrest and the pitch I would guess is an inch or so less than QF domestic J. No personal IFE built in at this point. (digiplayer) Standard Virgin F&B menu. A good PE product...at the price. (The correct product for a 2 hour flight IMO)

Are they going to market it as Business class?

 

[777]

Surely that means an announcement on IFE is close?

The big international IFE expo is on next week in the US. Virgin America is making a major announcement there, you wonder whether VA will do the same. Seems very unlikely that they would do a refit without updating the IFE -- unless either they aren't planning on doing anything that involves hard wiring the plane.

 

[serfty]

AirNZ has quite an extensive facility at CHC, with an internal area that, from memory, can handle at least three 737 at once.

Wijomas organised a tour of it last year - as part of this: *A / Air NZ Mega DO - AKL and CHC 11 - 12 December 2010

Indeed there was a DJ 737 being serviced at the time.

 

[777]

Actually, can someone remind me whether VA have definitely said that they are fitting out their fleet with some kind of new IFE product. I believe i saw reference to it around the time of the "Virgin Australia" rebranding launch but i can't remember where and i've seen not much since. Was there ever a timeline or can anyone in the know just give us a simple yes/no as to whether a new IFE product is in the mix at the moment?