Virgin Australia to lease more 737s

So VA leasing more planes, JQ bringing in aircraft from Japan (being already this month at 90% of pre-Covid capacity) and the massive government funding package is necessary? I’m wondering if the airlines are taking the government for a ride?
 
I understand the half-price airfares are not so much to support the airline industry, but to encourage people to travel to locations/regions most impacted by the lack of international tourists and to help tourist-related businesses in those locations. The air-fares and the boost to airline travel is a necessary part of the process to get people to visit those regions to spend some money.
 
NM said:
I understand the half-price airfares are not so much to support the airline industry, but to encourage people to travel to locations/regions most impacted by the lack of international tourists and to help tourist-related businesses in those locations. The air-fares and the boost to airline travel is a necessary part of the process to get people to visit those regions to spend some money.
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Yeh, that is the way it is being spun. I remain sceptical though, let's see if those $70 airfares between MEL and OOL, which are available right now, before the scheme is launched, for example, turn into $35 airfares. Or whether it is the airlines that will profit from this by now providing the $140 airfares for $70 instead ......
 
dajop said:
Yeh, that is the way it is being spun. I remain sceptical though, let's see if those $70 airfares between MEL and OOL, which are available right now, before the scheme is launched, for example, turn into $35 airfares. Or whether it is the airlines that will profit from this by now providing the $140 airfares for $70 instead ......
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I am not making any comment regarding how the airlines will manage the airfare subsidy. I am merely commenting on the purpose behind the subsidy being to boost spending in regions most impacted by the lack of international tourists. How successful it will be in achieving that goal is yet to be determined. But the intention is not to provide additional revenue to the airlines - it is to encourage Australians to travel to hurting regional centres and spend some cash on tourist type activities. Yes, the airlines will benefit from the extra passengers, and we can only hope they do the right things with the pricing and that there is a level of accountability regarding the pricing.

Either way, it seems Virgin is optimistic regarding the future demand for domestic travel, which I think is good for both the airline industry and the suffering tourism market. Aircraft leases are a longer term commitment than the recently announced government airfare subsidy.
 
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dajop said:
Yeh, that is the way it is being spun. I remain sceptical though, let's see if those $70 airfares between MEL and OOL, which are available right now, before the scheme is launched, for example, turn into $35 airfares. Or whether it is the airlines that will profit from this by now providing the $140 airfares for $70 instead ......
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Is $70 for MEL-OOL a viable, long term rate? I'm skeptical as that is as much as many taxi rides just to MEL, and with only a number more passengers, and with much larger capital and infrastructure costs...
 
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odysseus said:
Is $70 for MEL-OOL a viable, long term rate? I'm skeptical as that is as much as many taxi rides just to MEL, and with only a number more passengers, and with much larger capital and infrastructure costs...
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All depends on how many are made available on that fare. For Jetstar, if it were 10% of the aircraft it almost certainly is a viable rate, if you assume x% of passengers on that fare are going to pay for luggage, food, drinks etc ... For Rex and Virgin, maybe not. For Qantas, they're never going to sell it at that rate anyway.
 
Wish they'd lease an A330 instead of these blasted plague of 737s we are subjected too....

I wonder if they will ditch J class in their newly leased 737s and have a subfleet of all Y? Probably better fits their new customer base....
 
jakeseven7 said:
I wonder if they will ditch J class in their newly leased 737s and have a subfleet of all Y? Probably better fits their new customer base....
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I believe the planes are already conveniently painted in VA colours with the VA cabin... can’t see them spending any funds to change them
 
Reality is it suits everyone for VA to get as many 737s back in to the fleet as possible, even if on very sub-optimal terms for the lessors.
 
jakeseven7 said:
Wish they'd lease an A330 instead of these blasted plague of 737s we are subjected too....

I wonder if they will ditch J class in their newly leased 737s and have a subfleet of all Y? Probably better fits their new customer base....
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As mentioned in the earlier thread on this topic, it's more likely the 'new' planes heading to VA 3.0 are actually the old VA 2.0 planes they're 'getting back' from the lessors at a 'cheaper rate'.
 
BNEFlyer said:
Their 'new' customer base wouldn't be much, if any, different to their 'old' one.
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It is going to be a lot less business and corporate travellers thats for sure and a lot more leisure, price concious travellers.

VA2 has already lost 25 major business accounts.... which is in line with their brand repositioning moving away from premium and business travel.
 
jakeseven7 said:
It is going to be a lot less business and corporate travellers thats for sure and a lot more leisure, price concious travellers.

VA2 has already lost 25 major business accounts.... which is in line with their brand repositioning moving away from premium and business travel.
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Hard not to feel that in the next 12-18 months, there will be a reversal in that trend if schedules can be improved with frequency, kept reliable, and product continues to ramp back up.

Particularly if international travel is not a big factor, because that will be a massive edge for Qantas unless partnership stuff is sorted for VA2
 
Considering International interline/partnerships haven't been sorted outside of the 'Big 3' (e.g SQ, DL and EY) plus the recently implemented AC partnership, I don't think Bain are in any rush to develop partnerships outside of those 4 with the exception of perhaps NH.
 
Must...Fly! said:
Hard not to feel that in the next 12-18 months, there will be a reversal in that trend if schedules can be improved with frequency, kept reliable, and product continues to ramp back up.
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I doubt it will be a significant reversal because VA2 have confirmed several times they are not really interested in targeting medium / large businesses anyway. They have a new target market and will probably stick to focussing on them.
 

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