Virgin Australia to lease more 737s

[HS-TQE]

Also, the ACCC is looking at not renewing the VA Alliance 5-year agreement, which is about to come to an end, irrespective of the Qantas buyout approval pending.

IIRC, the VARA/Alliance agreement was for the WA FIFO work, which the ACCC is considering terminating. I agree that the separate decision by the ACCC shouldn't affect/influence their decision in the pending Qantas/Alliance case.

I'm not sure if the recent decision by the ACCC regarding VARA/Alliance will affect the VA (mainline)/Alliance F100 RPT work in Queensland. I'm assuming it doesn't and the VA/Alliance Queensland F100 RPT work shouldn't be affected for the 2022/23 NW (SS) season.

 

[Saab34]

Also, the ACCC is looking at not renewing the VA Alliance 5-year agreement, which is about to come to an end, irrespective of the Qantas buyout approval pending.

I think that is only the WA FIFO stuff. Wet lease is separate, happy to be corrected.

 

[darv]

If the all Y aircraft is going to fly around anywhere it makes booking J risky

Not a good idea at all

I’m flying BNE to HBA on Saturday, paid for J, and it’s been swapped to the 737-700 all Y

 

[AIRwin]

I’m flying BNE to HBA on Saturday, paid for J, and it’s been swapped to the 737-700 all Y

Any downgrade refund or option to reroute via MEL/SYD?

 

[darv]

Any downgrade refund or option to reroute via MEL/SYD?

They haven’t told me anything. When I went to select a seat to sit next to my colleague who is also paid J, I realised the seat map had only economy and 23 rows

 

[AIRwin]

They haven’t told me anything.

Best to call now before options run out...

 

[ols]

.You'd like to hope that they keep them away from the longer routes, but given the A320's operating ADL-PER consistently, who knows?

Doing PER-HBA with A320's too.
Found out when two J reward flights there and back had to be be changed a couple of weeks ago.

 

[lovestotravel]

I’m flying BNE to HBA on Saturday, paid for J, and it’s been swapped to the 737-700 all Y

Disgusting and this puts me off J on VA if it continues

VA had a consistent fleet, keep it that way

 

[MarkD]

Happy to be corrected, but VA never flew the ATR's to MKY, only to ROK/GLT/EMD/BDB. OTOH QF were quite happy to fly Dash-8's to MKY for quite a while...

Was referring to pre VA. BEFORE VA started flying there it was dash 8s etc. VA never flew atr there as far as i know. anyway. Showing my age

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

Was referring to pre VA. BEFORE VA started flying there it was dash 8s etc. VA never flew atr there as far as i know. anyway. Showing my age

All good. I've been in BNE 10 years now, so don't have too much of a point of reference prior to 2012-ish...

 

[Bagpuss]

Doing PER-HBA with A320's too.
Found out when two J reward flights there and back had to be be changed a couple of weeks ago.

You are within the rights to ask to be re-routed via SYD / MEL (/ BNE if you're game) if (any) seats are available and you are happy with the re-routing. I've done this heaps of times.

 

[Bagpuss]

I think that is only the WA FIFO stuff. Wet lease is separate, happy to be corrected.

WA FIFO is done by VARA which will be the 737-700.

It's for other services where 737-800's are too big.

 

[simmomelb]

Disgusting and this puts me off J on VA if it continues

VA had a consistent fleet, keep it that way

Just an idea. Could VA be using the A320's, F100's and 737-700's without J on smaller routes whilst they fit out the 737-800's with the new business seats, satellite internet and tail logo?

 

[ols]

You are within the rights to ask to be re-routed via SYD / MEL (/ BNE if you're game) if (any) seats are available and you are happy with the re-routing. I've done this heaps of times

could've have mucked up timings at Tassie end that were already organised

 

[Bagpuss]

Just an idea. Could VA be using the A320's, F100's and 737-700's without J on smaller routes whilst they fit out the 737-800's with the new business seats, satellite internet and tail logo?

What makes you think they are retro fitting the existing 737-800 short term ?

They will bring in the MAX and exit the non BSI fleet.

If anything they’ll use the 2 existing 700’s with J class maybe if needed.

They won’t fly the F100’s out of anymore. They will be gone early 2023.

The A320’s also are still ex Tiger seats.

FYI I expect even John S thought WTF when he saw all the costs to rebrand to Virgin Australia. Jane and Bain probably were in total disbelief.

 

[Saab34]

I was thinking perhaps they won’t exit the ex non BSI fleet as the lessors will go right to Rex to make a
quick buck. It appears Rex taking on non Virgin 737s takes an extra 6-12 months to organise/facilitate/enter into service. They can get VA machines online in a month. Perhaps Virgin should take the seats out if they do, that would delay Rex 6 months before they can buy new seats.

 

[HS-TQE]

Like VA reportedly did with a number of ex-leased planes that were returned and never came back (excluding the first 6 oldest 738s that went to REX) I'd suspect VA will take out the seats on the non-BSI birds in 2023 and install the (old Y) seats on the other ex-KLM 73G birds down the track.

 

[MooTime]

Out of interest, who decided that REXY get the oldest Virgin birds?

Did REXY just want the cheapest which most likely were theb oldest?

 

[pauly7]

I have flown on one of the ex silkair 800s with these seats and found them comfortable. In fact more comfortable than the existing seats. Plus the added benefit of a tablet / phone holder.

Have (by chance) landed on the new Virgin slim line seats twice now and I’d have to disagree, I found them to be very very firm seats and at a slightly weird angle which was not very comfortable, maybe it was the lumbar….(or lack thereof..) Myself and my work colleagues did not rate them at all.

The other thing is that you feel a lot closer and more open to the rows around you, they aren’t very ‘private’ if you care about that. Very similar to the new Jetstar slim line seats.

Personally don’t really care about the phone/tablet holder as I work on flights but can see how some would value it.

And that in itself is really quite sad. If VA is going to take the fight to QF and REX in the J space then they shouldn't be picking and choosing which ports they run the all-Y config to or not.

But they aren’t taking the fight directly to QF anymore, they have repositioned the Virgin brand down market into focussing more on leisure and some more price conscious small business.

Now Rex is different - they are squarely fighting for the same customers with the same product and are an annoying complication for Virgin!

I’m sure if Virgin hadn’t collapsed and lost a lot of their fleet, Rex would not have ended up with 737s with business class, they’d be flying all Y as well, for sure if they could design their destiny without the attraction of fire sale prices for Virgin aircraft.

So net, I don’t see the issue with Virgin introducing more all Y aircraft - it fits the brief for their new brand offering (mark 2/3) depending how you count

 

[simmomelb]

To confirm, all the F100's will be completely removed from VA fleet in early 2023, is that right?
I wish they held onto their E190's, I loved those planes for smaller routes.
Comfy Y and J