Virgin puts brakes on regional arm due to safety & compliance concerns

[pauly7]

An interesting piece - it has been discussed previously VA were having some pretty big integration problems and now this comes to light...

Six aircraft have been deferred and one grounded in the interm.



Virgin Australia Holdings has placed an ambitious expansion of its regional division on hold as it works to improve safety and compliance procedures at the former Skywest.The airline has deferred the planned delivery of six ATR-72 turboprops to a period of between March 2014 and August 2015 rather than the previously planned time frame of November 2013 and December 2014 and has voluntarily kept one new ATR-72, delivered in September, on the ground.
The airline has been in talks with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority for months about improving procedures at Perth-based Virgin Australia Regional Airlines, formerly known as Skywest. Aviation industry sources said CASA had not taken any administrative action against VARA because Virgin volunteered to fix any perceived issues.


Full article
http://www.afr.com/p/business/companies/virgin_puts_brakes_on_regional_arm_JhY9fFZUnobEeJ7AblSGIJ

 

[esquire]

A very interesting article and not much of a surprise given how old fashioned SkyWest was in everything they did. Was bound to go wrong eventually putting that up against the VA culture.

(and if it was QF deferring and effectively grounding new planes it would be all over the front page!)

 

[markis10]

They certainly have expanded quickly, and given the issues tiger had along similar lines it's not surprising! JQ have similar issues at present with limits on AOC types and numbers, an issue you are likely to run into as you expand quickly.

 

[pauly7]

A very interesting article

(and if it was QF deferring and effectively grounding new planes it would be all over the front page!)

Oh that goes without saying these days!