Clearly Virgin need another aircraft here. It makes sense to pick one out of another part of the "network" rather than lease from overseas, especially if it's a short term lease.
The question I have (I don't know the answer but maybe someone in the know will) is can the Aus crews legally fly a ZK registered aircraft if they don't hold a NZ licence? I don't believe they can. (Even if you are to convert under the TTMRA it takes a few weeks for the licence to come through... they need aircraft and crew now, not in a few weeks)
I know there are a lot of NZ licence holders flying for Virgin but if they are already allocated in crewing, perhaps the only way to make it work in the short term is to use a NZ rego'd aircraft and NZ crews.
I'd give it a few weeks before crying foul on this one!
EDIT: Now that QF has pulled the pin from Monday might I suggest that there wll be more than one PB aircraft flying around...
Last edited by Nose wheel first; 29th Oct 2011 at 07:00.