VA A330 Flights to Fiji and SYD-MEL shuffle

[93D]

"Virgin Australia will upgrade its Sydney-Fiji flights to an Airbus A330 during peak travel periods in April plus June through October 2014, and also roster the big twin-aisle jet onto selected Sydney-Melbourne flights.However, the airline says there will be "no impact on existing A330 trans-continental services" between the east and west coasts.The A330 will fly between Sydney and Nadi, Fiji on Saturdays during peak travel periods "in response to increased demand," Virgin says, in what marks the first international route for its A330 fleet."

More at Virgin Australia: Airbus A330 flights for Fiji, Sydney-Melbourne - Australian Business Traveller

Good to see VA expanding Internation.

 

[Spacetravel]

While a lie flat bad for SYD > MEL is over kill I can't wait to test out J as I do this route a lot haha.

 

[Zerosignal]

While a lie flat bad for SYD > MEL is over kill I can't wait to test out J as I do this route a lot haha.

That is probably part of the plan, get it on this route so MEL and SYD people can experience prior to making the PER decision.

 

[dk4]

Methinks, this is part of a pincer style strategy coming up from Virgin, aimed at the top end of the market. (Keeping their product portfolio/offer the same size, once they remove Saver Lite, by adding a new premium product line to VA. Together with more aggressive use of TT at the lower end of the market.) Thus - rename "Business" on all A330 & B777 aircraft as "BusinessFirst". Reduce capacity to/from PER (but not frequency, which is already lower than QF, by replacing some services with B737s) and market two domestic premium products (at different price points) to PER and between MEL-SYD, and possibly other short haul international (e.g. Tasman).

IMO this positioning could play well against Qantas, where they actually have a First Class product, and will soon have two completely different widebody Business Class seats, by creating some confusion to Qantas customers should QF do similar.

 

[jpk]

The A330s usually don't fly on Saturday's (transcons done by 737s) so this could be an interesting use of them. Kinda similar to how QF does PER-AKL with an A330 that is otherwise dormant. Also a nice way to ease the A330 into international ops and see how it goes...

 

[Saab34]

At least Virgin's A330 fleet are all the same inside, and brand new. With Qantas you don't know which one your going to get.

The Fiji flight, operated only on a Saturday move, looks like its about increasing utilizastion, the majority of the A330 fleet on Saturday sit idle around the country.

 

[mannej]

At least Virgin's A330 fleet are all the same inside, and brand new. With Qantas you don't know which one your going to get.

The Fiji flight, operated only on a Saturday move, looks like its about increasing utilizastion, the majority of the A330 fleet on Saturday sit idle around the country.

That will change though when VA go through their re-configuration phase, they will have the period of inconsistency

Plus the seat map gives away which one you are going to get on the Roo.

 

[theevilmuppet]

That is probably part of the plan, get it on this route so MEL and SYD people can experience prior to making the PER decision.

Probably much simpler than that.

The SYD - MEL route is profitable, high-volume and the best way of increasing profitability is to reduce cost per passenger.

If one can go from 8 J seats to 24 J seats and from 168 to 255 economy seats per flight per trip, they're probably betting on the extra 16 J seats covering any shortfall in fuel efficiency costs (I honestly can't be coughd doing the comparison).

 

[pauly7]

That is probably part of the plan, get it on this route so MEL and SYD people can experience prior to making the PER decision.

Apart from the fact their PER schedules are littered with those pesky little sardine can 737s!

They also have a nasty habit of subbing the A330s last minute for 737s I assume because of a lack of bums on seats. Was burned by this recently!

 

[bullerdude]

Once the new seats are installed I am also inclined to think that we may see 'business' and something like 'business-first' sold depending on the plane.

Presumably the business price stay as it and the business-first price will be higher.