Virgin Blue Kicks Off International Expansion Plan, Seeks Interest.
Dow Jones Business News
Virgin Blue Kicks Off International Expansion Plan, Seeks Interest
Monday November 11, 3:31 am ET
SYDNEY -(Dow Jones)- Australia's second-biggest airline, Virgin Blue, kicked off its international expansion plan Monday, seeking new travel destinations within the Asia-Pacific region.
The no-frills carrier is mailing out tender documents to a number of organizations and countries to find out whether they are interested in Virgin Blue's services.
Virgin Blue will send the documents to all Australian state tourism offices and cities with international airports, all New Zealand regions with international airports, the Australian Tourist Commission and the New Zealand Tourism Board.
It will also send the documents to: the Cook Islands, East Timor, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Guam, Indonesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Northern Marianas Islands, Nouvelle Caledonie, Palau, Papua New Guinea, American Samoa, Western Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tahiti-French Polynesia, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna Islands.
All interested parties must respond by Nov. 30.
The international expansion move comes less than a week after Virgin Blue ended its long-running dispute with Sydney Airport over terminal access.
However, it was vague about the launch date of its international flights in its tender documents.
"In the coming years Virgin Blue will be considering destinations based on a 737-700/800 extended-range operation.
"They will be introduced in different phases, and we will not be actively considering destinations beyond 737 range (approximately five flying hours) from a suitable Australian or New Zealand international airport until a later phase in our development," said Virgin Blue.
Last week U.K. businessman Richard Branson told reporters in Sydney the airline may launch international flights from Australia by June 2003.
Virgin Blue, which is jointly owned by Branson and Australian transport group Patrick Corp. , is also evaluating other destinations in Southeast Asia. But a full review of flight capabilities hasn't been completed for destinations beyond Indonesia, it said.
"Still we welcome submissions from any Southeast Asian nation, airport, operator or vendor and they will be catalogued if we cannot consider them until we look at later expansion phases that would include longer-range aircraft," Virgin Blue said in its tender documents.
It plans to operate 46 planes by 2005.