Originally Posted by
QldPilotGuy
Umm Virgin "propping up" Tiger ? What exactly is your source ? Did you read and examine the Half Yearly results ?
Tiger actually had the highest load factors on flights in the Virgin Group and with one of the lowest cost bases in Australia it is the profitable part of the group.
It's actually Virgin that is pulling down Tiger, Virgin posted a loss and in response they made almost no changes to the Virgin network but instead culled Tiger which will help their books look better in the short term.
If Virgin think that getting rid of half of Tiger will mean Tiger passengers will fly Virgin they are incredibly misguided, they have literally just handed Jetstar a Golden Egg.
One of the more simple things I’ve read here - and you’ve highlighted very clearly how some pilots simply do not understand the fundamentals of running an airline.
Hint: High load factors doesn’t mean the flight is making money. It’s based on yield. If a TT aircraft departs full and everyone paid $50 for a ticket - it’s unlikely the flight is making money. It’s also why a half full 737 at VA with 4 full fare J class pax might be making money. Given the very low yield of TT flights, they have to have a high load factor (probably higher than where it is at the moment).
Ultimately though it’s Tiger’s cost base that has killed it. The place was really going to struggle as soon as the fleet replacement was delayed for a silly amount of time.To me the fleet replacement made perfect sense at the time it was announced, given economies of scale with VA etc - it was just the implementation that was a complete basket case (not helped of course with the Max issues).
It caught me by surprise though that TT aren’t getting more 73s from NZ - I thought they may have got 5 or so aircraft from there given the bloodbath on the Tasman after the split with ANZ.
Make no mistake - I feel for all the TT pilots given the uncertainty they face, none of which they had any control over. The VA group certainly isn’t a great place to be working at the moment