Been away from work for a bit, but the last I heard was the possability that the BNE - AUH may transit SIN...
Thats all I got
As a new entrant airline to the asia route, I think we would stuggle to fill the 777 without substantial on-carriage from an established network airline partnership. That would be the only way you would see the 777 and not the A330 doing Asia with a dirty big Virgin on the tail... SQ,CX, MH, QF, EK, EY, KE, JL, BA all use high capacity wide bodies but have built up customer bases and widespread networks (many, now suppliment A380/747/777's with A330's/767's to enable increased frequency).
New entrant airlines like many of the Chinese carriers (and even EK, and EY just a couple of years ago) used smaller capacity wide bodies like the 330 and 340 to establish the routes they sought to build.
All depends on who VBH can get into bed with to sell tickets for us to suppliment a relatively new customer base in Oz.
So, with regard to the 777 being the right airline for Asia; I agree, it is not and, I agree that it is...
Bi-partisan enough for y'all?
With regards to new destinations on top of a potential SIN stop on the way to AUH, I don't reckon anything will happen for a while yet. There will be new orders for the 777 to enable daily SYD-AUH, more frequency on the BNE-AUH and the introduction of MEL-AUH aswell as increasing MEL-LAX and BNE-LAX first. I make it about 4 more frames to enable that alone; and a couple of years to bed the existing routes in before decent further expansion.
At one of the roadshows many months ago, there was one statement above all others (maybe except for "I just wish I could tell you how good this new product at
VB is going to be, but you will just have to wait and see... Damn it is good!") that stil stays in my head today, and may lend a clue to the growth potential of the 777 operation. He said, "I have never seen an airline go broke by having not enough planes, but I have seen plenty go broke by having too many..." He'll get the routes right first, one by one, before launching a Branson style (ironic heh) attack on the WORLD!!!
But, what would I know...
The 330 will be the growth vehicle for new destinations... Mark my words