Originally Posted by
Husky One
Virgin’s forward bookings in the shoulder months are grim with virtually no interest in the J cabin and little more in Premium. They’ve just dumbed down their economy product again but kept the prices up. If anything they’ll be scaling back next year, not expanding further. The 747’s retire within 4 years. If they’re still around BFS they’re more likely to be using the 330 than the 350. I’m surprised they didn’t use it in the first place. The 330 makes a lot more sense than a 468 seat Jumbo.
Actually, for a low-J/W demand route such as BFS-MCO, the B744 makes a lot more sense than using the A333. Just look at the aircraft configurations;
A333; 31/48/185 (264) vs B744; 14/66/375 (455)
The A333 is a lot more premium heavy than the B744, and is wholly unsuitable for BFS operations. The A333 is actually used primarily for key business routes alongside the B789, whereas the B744s are reserved exclusively for leisure routes. There are 79 premium seats on the A333, compared with 80 on the B744. VS would find it difficult to fill 75% of the seats on an A333, whereas passenger figures show that the airline exceeds this load factor when using the B744.
In 2016, VS carried on average 354 pax per flight (78% LF), and 385 pax in 2017 (85% LF), so it is clear that operating the B744 on this route is working well for VS.