Virgin Australia orders 8 Embraer E190-E2 jets for delivery from 2025

[trisreed]

Just landed in Perth and appears to have made its way straight to the new(ish) hangar.

 

[Lucass]

VARA exec confirmed that they will look at expanding the e190-e2’s routes once they have enough aircraft… eyeing east coast and short haul international flights in the future.

First Virgin E190-E2 comes home to Perth

VH-E2A, which will begin revenue flights for Virgin Australia Regional Airlines in October, was greeted by water cannons as it touched down in Perth on Monday following its trip from Embraer’s factory in São José dos Campos, via Texas, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Fiji and Canberra.

australianaviation.com.au

 

[Harrison_133]

Some cabin shots from the VA Facebook page. Very generous legroom in 2A.

 

[Lucass]

Some cabin shots from the VA Facebook page. Very generous legroom in 2A.

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Looks great! So much better than the Fokker 100 and A320

 

[AFFuser1]

I know they are VA flight numbers but are these all flown by VA pilots? I can’t imagine intra south American flights would be too familiar to local Va crews.

I know Alliance/Network used contractors to get the aircraft ferried over.

Late reply - but it was done in house not with contractors.

 

[Harrison_133]

The first E190-E2 just entered service on a FIFO run to Boolgeeda.

 

[Harrison_133]

E2B has commenced its delivery flight.

 

[Saab34]

Having been on a F100 between ADL-BNE recently I can’t help l think that this E2 aircraft would be suited to the route. Could run PER-ADL-BNE and return.

ADL-BNE is a route that has been given poor product by both main carriers in recent times, QF offloaded it all to Alliance, Virgin runs about half in house.

 

[AuSammy]

ADL-BNE is a route that has been given poor product by both main carriers in recent times,

Never a truer statement

 

[PaulllM]

Having been on a F100 between ADL-BNE recently I can’t help l think that this E2 aircraft would be suited to the route. Could run PER-ADL-BNE and return.

ADL-BNE is a route that has been given poor product by both main carriers in recent times, QF offloaded it all to Alliance, Virgin runs about half in house.

Poor product with an expensive price point for two decently sized markets. The QL E190s are old and tired, the Fokkers are no where near the basic level of service that one should get on a VA ticket and when we do get VA fleet half the time its the 700s which are ok (some WiFi would be nice)

 

[Saab34]

Poor product with an expensive price point for two decently sized markets. The QL E190s are old and tired, the Fokkers are no where near the basic level of service that one should get on a VA ticket and when we do get VA fleet half the time its the 700s which are ok (some WiFi would be nice)

I was actually shocked that QF didn’t even offer a mainline service on this route, even just weekdays. Would be another good route for its A220, no doubt will occur eventually.

It gets worse in WA when you pay ridiculous pricing to end up on some old ex Spirit A319 with Qantas or the old Tiger A320s with Virgin. People are forking out $1k return on these flights for cough product.

 

[hugamuga]

I was actually shocked that QF didn’t even offer a mainline service on this route, even just weekdays. Would be another good route for its A220, no doubt will occur eventually.

It gets worse in WA when you pay ridiculous pricing to end up on some old ex Spirit A319 with Qantas or the old Tiger A320s with Virgin. People are forking out $1k return on these flights for cough product.

I find the ex-Spirit A319s fairly good for FIFO flights, definitely superior to the ex-jetstar and ex-tiger A320s . Nothing beats a Fokker though, still the most quiet and comfortable domestic class ride in Australia. I find the VARA ones are particularly comfortable.

 

[Harrison_133]

Having been on a F100 between ADL-BNE recently I can’t help l think that this E2 aircraft would be suited to the route. Could run PER-ADL-BNE and return.

ADL-BNE is a route that has been given poor product by both main carriers in recent times, QF offloaded it all to Alliance, Virgin runs about half in house.

It appears your wishes have been answered.

All Alliance Fokker flying on the following routes has now been switched over to the VA 737 effective the week starting 2 February 2026:

• Brisbane - Adelaide
• Brisbane - Canberra
• Brisbane - Mackay
• Brisbane - Mount Isa
• Brisbane - Townsville

This is a very recent change. Until just a few days ago, they had only switched the Alliance Fokker flying to the 737 until the end of March 2026. This has now been extended throughout the entire booking window.

The remaining Alliance Fokker flying for VA past 2 February 2026 is on the following routes:

• Brisbane - Emerald
• Brisbane - Gladstone
• Brisbane - Newcastle
• Brisbane - Rockhampton

 

[Saab34]

I wonder if the rapid exit was due to Alliance waning to renegotiate its contracts.

-700 is the workhorse for intra QLD. They never should have retired so many back in the day.

 

[HS-TQE]

I'd speculate any PER based 700s will be moved to BNE in February to backfill for the gradual QQ Fokker wind-down on intra-Qld (BNE based QQ wetlease ops in general really) ops and a combination of mainline 7M8s and any remaining Alliance/Airnorth (albeit ad-hoc) wetleases for PER FIFO charter operations may fill in for the 73Gs going to BNE.

Edit:Checked the schedules for current QQ flying, sone routes like BNE-ADL are also ad-hoc (e.g 1-3 rotations a week, not daily) thus only requires some shuffling of mainline rotations to fit the current QQ services in without taking a mainline aircraft from elsewhere. It would be tight with reduced down time, but workable.

 

[Harrison_133]

I'd speculate any PER based 700s will be moved to BNE in February to backfill for the gradual QQ Fokker wind-down on intra-Qld (BNE based QQ wetlease ops in general really) ops and a combination of mainline 7M8s and any remaining Alliance/Airnorth (albeit ad-hoc) wetleases for PER FIFO charter operations may fill in for the 73Gs going to BNE.

The services previously scheduled for Fokkers are currently all showing 737-800s.

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

I wonder if the rapid exit was due to Alliance waning to renegotiate its contracts.

-700 is the workhorse for intra QLD. They never should have retired so many back in the day.

How many -700 did VA actually have "back in the day"? I thought any smaller 73s were only part of the scale up as they awaited NG delivery?

 

[markis10]

How many -700 did VA actually have "back in the day"? I thought any smaller 73s were only part of the scale up as they awaited NG delivery?

They had 14 that were moved on with the arrival of the jungle jets

 

[AIRwin]

They had 14 that were moved on with the arrival of the jungle jets

14 excluding VBY and VBZ?

 

[markis10]

14 excluding VBY and VBZ?

That’s what I said, left fleet

MSN LN TYPE REGISTRATION ACTIVE FROM TO REMARK
32734 1090 737-76N VH-VBM 04/05/2011 31/05/2012 To SAS Scandinavian Airlines
as SE-RET
33005 1134 737-76N VH-VBN 04/05/2011 20/08/2012 To SAS Scandinavian Airlines
as SE-REU
33418 1226 737-76N VH-VBO 04/05/2011 14/11/2012 To SAS Scandinavian Airlines
as SE-REX
30288 1322 737-76Q VH-VBU 04/05/2011 06/02/2014 To Southwest Airlines
as N488AC
33015 1384 737-7BK VH-VBV 04/05/2011 17/10/2013 To Air Zena Georgian Airways
as 4L-TGN
30743 922 737-7BX VH-VBP 04/05/2011 13/09/2012 To Primera Air Scandinavia
as OY-PSG
30630 1032 737-7Q8 VH-VBF 04/05/2011 25/02/2012 To Aerolineas Argentinas
as LV-CSC
30633 1220 737-7Q8 VH-VBL 04/05/2011 20/11/2012 To Aerolineas Argentinas
as LV-CYO
30638 858 737-7Q8 VH-VBC 04/05/2011 27/07/2012 To Aerolineas Argentinas
as LV-CXN
30641 1080 737-7Q8 VH-VBH 04/05/2011 04/06/2012 To Aerolineas Argentinas
as LV-CVX
30644 1107 737-7Q8 VH-VBI 04/05/2011 07/07/2012 To Aerolineas Argentinas
as LV-CWL
30647 1159 737-7Q8 VH-VBJ 04/05/2011 07/08/2012 To Aerolineas Argentinas
as LV-CYJ
30648 1171 737-7Q8 VH-VBK 04/05/2011 30/08/2012 To Aerolineas Argentinas
as LV-CYN
30707 975 737-7Q8 VH-VBD 04/05/2011 25/11/2011 To Aerolineas Argentinas
as LV-CSI

Source https://www.airfleets.net/flottecie/Virgin Australia-history-b737ng-0-typeasc.htm

Kind of a weird coincidence one had “Rex” in its rego at its new home in scandenavia