HNA Takes A Stake - New Asian Routes to Follow?

[yohy?!]

With the announcement of HNA taking a stake in VA (and NZ exiting) it seems that finally there may be some action in the international space for VA.

Their exposure to intense discounting on the Kangaroo Route & Transpacific makes a push into China logical given the heavy traffic into Oz from Chinese tourists - HNA has tried (unsuccessfully) to get a slice of this in the past.

So what do you think of VA flights into China? Perhaps it's time to see the 330s spread their wings overseas at last.

It seems likely there would be a codesharing arrangement into one of HN's hubs in PEK, XIY or HAK to maximise domestic through-traffic.

 

[Bagpuss]

So what do you think of VA flights into China? Perhaps it's time to see the 330s spread their wings overseas at last.

Yep, I think VA will start flying the a330's to China. I wouldn't be surprised if they get 1 or 2 new a330's.
a330's will remain "coast to coast", though expect the schedule to become a bit more standardised with which flights are a330 and those which are b737.

Longer term, expect the a330's and b777's to replaced by a uniformed b787 OR a350 fleet.

 

[BillytheFIsh]

Wow. Certainly an interesting development. From the SMH: Virgin Australia sells stake to China's HNA Aviation Group

Flights will start in the first half 2017, Mr Borghetti said, and be serviced by a mix of Virgin and HNA aircraft. Mr Borghetti said at least eight flights a week would depart from major Chinese cities to Australia, and while details have not been finalised, he mentioned Beijing and Hong Kong as attractive options.

...

The deal will come as a blow to Air New Zealand, which is trying to sell its 26 per cent stake in Virgin - since diluted to 22.5 per cent by the HNA deal.

8 flights a week is not a lot. I thought HA would go daily into Sydney to connect to VA domestic network at least.

Tough sell for NZ for its shares you'd imagine.

 

[MH_fan]

Interesting that AirNZ wanted to get rid of JB...

 

[rtyuiop]

8 flights a week? Huh? Presumably at least 5-7 of those will be Sydney to Beijing, which doesn't leave enough to service any other city pair in any useful way. Super weird.

The fairfax story has a quote from JB about gaining synergies with HNA's aviation supply chain, that might be a bigger factor than was obvious initially.

 

[kamchatsky]

HX will code-share with VA. HX already flies to OOL and CNS, and possibly expand operations to rest of Australia.

 

[dajop]

8 flights a week? Huh? Presumably at least 5-7 of those will be Sydney to Beijing, which doesn't leave enough to service any other city pair in any useful way. Super weird.

6 to SYD + two existing Hong Kong Airlines services to OOL via CNS..?

 

[Awesom Andy]

Air China currently has a few direct flights from SYD and MEL, but given that it's not even a daily flight yet for each of the destinations, I'm not sure if there's enough capacity to support a new carrier. HKG seems interesting though, CX has used up all of the available flights for a HKG-based airline flying into the major ports in Australia (partly to keep HX from expanding to this market), but they can now certainly start thinking about going the other way.

 

[juliusg]

I found this review which is a good review! Augers well.....

Review: Hainan Business Class 787 Los Angeles To Changsha - One Mile at a Time

 

[rtyuiop]

6 to SYD + two existing Hong Kong Airlines services to OOL via CNS..?

Makes some sense if they are only interested in the China market inbound, I guess!

 

[deva22]

Yep, I think VA will start flying the a330's to China. I wouldn't be surprised if they get 1 or 2 new a330's.
a330's will remain "coast to coast", though expect the schedule to become a bit more standardised with which flights are a330 and those which are b737.

Longer term, expect the a330's and b777's to replaced by a uniformed b787 OR a350 fleet.

A little birdy tells me they are leaning more towards the 787 option...

 

[yohy?!]

A little birdy tells me they are leaning more towards the 787 option...

a wet leased bird in VA colours would look nice, the group as has ordered 42 788s with 10 already in HX

the group is the fourth biggest aircraft lessor in the world so that probably helped the deal

 

[yohy?!]

HX will code-share with VA. HX already flies to OOL and CNS, and possibly expand operations to rest of Australia.

Not sure if that would be possible under this agreement - HX is not technically a part of the HNA Group although they do have the majority share holding in it (which is causing all sorts of legal headaches at present as it violates HK law).

I think it's unlikely there'd be any coordination between VA and HX until this is resolved which means these would be 8 additional frequencies.

 

[docjames]

I think the fascinating thing is the potential for VA A330s to China, plus also the issue of new shares (rather than taking over of NZ's stake).


I also wonder how VA will keep so many partners and shareholders with conflicting demands happy......

 

[psi999]

I think the fascinating thing is the potential for VA A330s to China, plus also the issue of new shares (rather than taking over of NZ's stake).

I also wonder how VA will keep so many partners and shareholders with conflicting demands happy......

Looks like Hainan are already friends of Etihad

https://www.hainanairlines.com/HUPo...Y_SITE=CN&SITE=CBHZCBHZ&LANGUAGE=GB&PAGE=SFRE

And Singapore... But not AirNZ it seems

Singapore Air supported the HNA deal, while Air New Zealand wasn’t consulted because it no longer has a seat on Virgin Australia’s board, Borghetti said in the interview. Representatives for Air New Zealand and Singapore Air declined to comment on the deal.

Billionaire Chen’s HNA Buys Virgin Australia Stake in Spree - Bloomberg

And found this interesting....

As part of the alliance deal, Virgin will code-share with HNA and introduce reciprocal frequent flyer points.

Virgin raises $159m in placement to HNA Group | afr.com

 

[kevrosmith]

I find this quote in the Bloomberg story very interesting:

“We carry almost no traffic from China on our domestic network,” Chief Executive Officer John Borghetti said on a call with reporters Tuesday.

Many of my flights between SYD-CNS and BNE-CNS on VA have at least one-third to one-half seats filled with Chinese pax. So if they are carrying "almost no traffic from China", then nearlly all of that "almost no traffic" must be flying to CNS. :shock:

 

[Awesom Andy]

Many of my flights between SYD-CNS and BNE-CNS on VA have at least one-third to one-half seats filled with Chinese pax. So if they are carrying "almost no traffic from China", then nearlly all of that "almost no traffic" must be flying to CNS. :shock:

As an ex-China pax, options are rather limited. They can either book a QF multi-city starting from a port where QF has flights (often the most economical option), or they would need to buy their domestic tickets separately - which they either select the cheapest ones (being LCCs with services far surpassing their own dom flights back home), or they choose the best (being QF).

 

[rtyuiop]

I am intrigued to hear SQ supported it! Very interesting that that bloomberg article doesn't specify who they heard that from, and also doesn't say what Etihad thought.

 

[melb78]

whrre did these shares come from seem there not taken from anz listing

 

[williamsf1]

Interesting that AirNZ wanted to get rid of JB...

Why ? his time is up ... a few are jumping from the ship already ..