Virgin Australia to Reconfigure 737 Fleet - Spend $110M

[Scarlett]

Right. The infrastructure and regional development part of that now makes sense…

 

[kookaburra75]

It's interesting that the winning tender price is not publicly available. Is this normal in Australia?

It will be shortly, on Austender (tenders.gov.au) once the contract is formally awarded and starts. The new tender went out in mid-June last year (Approach to Market ATM 10028406). It's due to start 1 Nov 2025 and run through to 30 June 2030.
The previous contract to VARA was for $69,146,678 running from 1 Nov 2016 to 30 Oct 2025. It looks like it was amended several times during its life, having started with a $30million value. That might be why there are the extra flights (?)

 

[RooFlyer]

Flew VH-VUO today. No curtain, row 2 was reclining into row 3

Is that a thing? There’s more legroom in row three then in business. Or is that aircraft not like that?

I was on VH-VUH 2F today and reclined just a bit - the first time I’ve done that in years because I knew there was so much room behind me

 

[Springyboy]

Is that a thing? There’s more legroom in row three then in business. Or is that aircraft not like that?

I was on VH-VUH 2F today and reclined just a bit - the first time I’ve done that in years because I knew there was so much room behind me

Yeah they're getting a shower curtain to separate business and economy.

 

[RooFlyer]

Yeah they're getting a shower curtain to separate business and economy.

You seemed to be concerned about row 2 reclining to row 3?

But I also don’t get this obsession with the shower curtain thing. It’s a funny looking solution to separate business and economy. Anything else to occupy peoples minds?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You seemed to be concerned about row 2 reclining to row 3?

But I also don’t get this obsession with the shower curtain thing. It’s a funny looking solution to separate business and economy. Anything else to occupy peoples minds?

I think it’s just recognising it doesn’t look like a comprehensive solution given the years it took them to decide and install.

There were plenty other options for them to have chosen, including ones that offered reasonable cabin separation and privacy.

The curtain itself is fine… but it’s not 2-3 years of effort.

 

[serfty]

The curtain itself is fine… but it’s not 2-3 years of effort.

I suspect Bain hadn't perceived there'd be much of a problem after removing the "rope". There was. It.may have taken 18 months of flight crew/passenger compaints before they diceded to do something about it.

in my experience the curtain generally works.

Once they went down the curtain track, design, getting approval for them, their support stuctures and installation simply takes time, measured in years.

Ever wondered why ashtrays remained standard for decades after in flight smoking was prohibited, even for new aircraft?

The cost to remove them would reflect the required effort in relation to getting approvals etc., so the design and installation remained.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Once they went down the curtain track, design, getting approval for them, their support stuctures and installation simply takes time, measured in years.

Ever wondered why ashtrays remained standard for decades after in flight smoking was prohibited, even for new aircraft?

The cost to remove them would reflect the required effort in relation to getting approvals etc., so the design and installation remained.

I still can’t get my head around hiw something as common as a cabin divider can take ‘years’ to approve. Unless being non-safety critical it just kept getting pushed down the list of things to approve?

Ashtrays are still required, even on brand new aircraft

As for the ones in seats… they too remained for a while in case people ignored the bans, but have been gradually phased out as new seat are designed and replace existing ones.