Was the 8x MAX 8 added back to the order book solely for the HND route until Bain floats the company and the new owner reconsiders whether there’s place for wide body in the fleet?
The MAX 10 order still make sense on the domestic network but seems like it would make more financial sense to lease used 737-800s then getting new MAX 8.
But of course from an operations perspective the Qantas group (Jetstar probably) will probably run rings around Virgin once they start getting their A321XLR
Used NGs typically come with increased engineering bills, unreliability, costs associated with heavy checks and so on, I think I read on here that Bonza pays less per MAX on lease vs Rex and its newer NGs. Bonza has minimal engineering bills, Rex not so much.
Doubt VA will be impacted by the A321. Will give some efficiencies on a seat cost basis for QF, but we all know they won’t be passing anything onto customers. All VA short haul ops are largely bilaterals, you will see some swapping out equipment on these routes by all players in an effort to pull back seat costs. Jetstar A321 to Bali is a good example, 787s mostly off, A321s on, overall capacity remains the same, seat costs down, margins up, fares not down though!
Virgin will probably enter widebody ops again, the question is which future owner will take v
VA down this path, remains to be seen how many key investors they have will in the future, each decade will likely have a different owner.