Virgin Blue May Start Tokyo-Sydney Flights Within 18 Months

[oz_mark]

June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd., Australia’s second-biggest airline, may start flights between Sydney and Tokyo within 18 months in anticipation of a rebound in international travel demand.

The carrier would use Tokyo’s Haneda airport, Richard Branson, the billionaire who owns about 25 percent of the carrier, said in an interview today in Tokyo. The new route would be dependent on government approval.

Virgin Blue May Start Tokyo-Sydney Flights Within 18 Months - Bloomberg.com

 

[Saab34]

If I had a spare seat next to me and the aircraft had live2air then It might be not so bad, otherwise its tooo far in their 738's for me!

At least you can get a little space on a JQ 330, but being a direct service is attractive.

 

[NM]

If I had a spare seat next to me and the aircraft had live2air then It might be not so bad, otherwise its tooo far in their 738's for me!

At least you can get a little space on a JQ 330, but being a direct service is attractive.

There is no way they will be using 738 aircraft for this. The announcement is from Virgin Blue Holdings, which is the parent company for both Virgin Blue and V Australia. They are not allowed to use the name Virgin Blue (or Virgin Anything) for flights outside of Australia. Hence the different names such as V Australia, Pacific Blue etc.

Any ops between Australia and Japan will be using new 777 aircraft.

 

[kpc]

Tokyo’s Haneda airport is a lot closer to the city than Narita...this is a benefit

 

[dajop]

If I had a spare seat next to me and the aircraft had live2air then It might be not so bad, otherwise its tooo far in their 738's for me!

Yes SYD-POM-HND should work with current 737's.

Somehow though I think VA would be flying the route, not DJ.

 

[NYCguy]

Whichever aircraft they use, flying into HND is vastly more convenient than NRT.

 

[ANstar]

It guessit could work - esp given QF has moved some NRT flying to JQ.

 

[docjames]

You would presume it's VA not DJ.


They may be looking for effective ways to deploy their coming 777s as the US route is full of capacity at the moment and they cant afford to throw more seats at it with DL starting.

Would still like to see something a bit more concrete about the JNB route, especially with world cup coming they need to crystalise it or they wont get enough seats filled. Still curious how they'll go with ETOPS restrictions and with restricted takeoff performance ex-JNB (although typically with trailing winds prob be ok ex-JNB).


Edit: I'm always wary of reading too much into anything SRB says - often it's just policial play......

 

[oz_mark]

Edit: I'm always wary of reading too much into anything SRB says - often it's just policial play......

You may be on the money here....


Analysts shoot down Branson's Japanese trial balloon

VIRGIN BLUE'S biggest shareholder, Richard Branson, has a habit of talking up the expansion plans for Australia's second-largest carrier before clearing them with management.

And the British entrepreneur appears to be at it again.

 

[vet]

The concept was very well received by ski reps from Japanese resorts last night, and by many regular annual travellers to Japan on ski forums. Apparently using this equivelent of Essendon Airport, rather than the Japanese equivelent of Avalon, will avoid people losing 2 day's of their holiday being eaten by internal domestic travel. So hopefully St Richard gets his management cracking.

 

[Evan]

The concept was very well received by ski reps from Japanese resorts last night, and by many regular annual travellers to Japan on ski forums. Apparently using this equivelent of Essendon Airport, rather than the Japanese equivelent of Avalon, will avoid people losing 2 day's of their holiday being eaten by internal domestic travel. So hopefully St Richard gets his management cracking.

Having done lots of connections though all means from connecting flights to trains to cars in Japan i can tell you it wont make much difference if its HND instead of NRT ! for example you can still get a local train our to NRT like HND once the Narita express stops running as long as you understand Japanese... and i am tipping most Japanese do so

 

[vet]

Evan, the regular trippers to Japan's ski fields fly on Jetstar deals every year and say the V flights will mean less 'home to resort hotel' travel time, because landing on V at the domestic hub means no hours transitting from Narita so there's earlier flights out to Sapporro/Niseko. And maybe the ski bags can be checked all the way thru at international luggage capacity.

 

[JohnK]

V Australia appears to have a much better international product than Jetstar. Qantas may regret it's decision to move flights to Japan to Jetstar....

 

[pauly7]

V Australia appears to have a much better international product than Jetstar. Qantas may regret it's decision to move flights to Japan to Jetstar....

Well yes... V Australia is a 'full service' carrier!

If the Japanese market does comeback (apparently it is pretty bad right now) I'm sure QF have the flexibility to throw some mainline capacity at them.

 

[Fifa]

What a bonus not having to overnight in Narita/Tokyo before making your way to Haneda to fly to Sapporo, Asahikawa or elsewhere the next day

Bring it on!!!

 

[fortymilliondaggers]

I'm suprised that there aren't seasonal flights from Sydney to Sapporo yet!