Originally Posted by
racedo
Good post.
If business is walking dead, as it appears to be in being unable to generate a profit, in probably the most benign environment the airline industry had from 2015-2019 then it has bugger all chance of being able to do so from 2020 onwards.
Virgin model was a good one when introduced but sell by date was a while ago. There is no reason for Govt money to be pumped into a loss making business when if there are other options it could eaily do.
What is the USP (Unique selling point) of VS ? I cannot find a single one that cannot be done by someone else who is doing it profitably.
SRB and his media acolytes will shout scream and abuse to get their funding deal but my concern is whether there is a strong business behind the whole lot or a house of sand.
Do us a favour...go download the past two annual reports. Note in particular that, despite two years of losses, things are very definitely moving in the right direction. VS has been
disproportionately affected by the Trent 1000 issue the past few years, almost half of the entire fleet are 787s and at any time up to four have been grounded. That comes at a cost. Rather than farm out work to airlines their passengers had never heard of (BA, erm.. Air Belgium anyone? 🙄 ), the management proactively secured leases on four A330-200s, that comes at a cost, but ensures the product is worth the price for the customer.
VS net promoter scores continue to rise as investment is made into the product. Can the same be said for BA at the moment? Virgin's USP is the crew first and foremost, and the onboard experience. But I'm probably saying this to someone who only ever flies Ryanair 🙄