Virgin Blue to Karratha with the E-jet next year

[pilotdude09]

Howdy,

Just watching the news as usual and they are reporting that Virgin Blue wants to fly to Karratha with the E-jet as it would be one of the most sustainable routes in regional WA.

It's funny though, first Ozjet announcing they want to fly to Karratha, then Skywest and now Virgin Blue.

Obviously they cant all be accomodated so it will be interesting to see what develops.

At the moment work is going to be starting to redevelop the airport which includes the runway being extended and fattend up. Apparntley they are going to be finishing the taxiways that dont link to the runway at the moment, they are half finished and being used as chopper runways.

Also heard through the grapevine that one of the main reasons that the runway was being done was because the companys wanted to be able to charter 767 sized aircraft from major cities and even asian countrys to bring in contractors etc when major projects were going to be occuring.

Now whens Tiger going to be announcing they want Karratha as well??

But the big question will be who will win, it may be sustainable for 3 airlines but not 4 unless one other had a major major contract.

[pilotdude09]

Also digging up some dirt i found this,


Mr Godfrey said 24 new aircraft, including 20 Brazilian-built Embraer jets, would be acquired to operate services between state capitals and regional centres.

Melbourne-Mildura, Cairns-Darwin and Perth-Karratha were named as likely new routes for the 100-seat passenger jets due to begin arriving in Australia within a fortnight.


http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22285502-664,00.html

[Skystar320]

I wonder if they will do a Kalgoorlie again,

Pull out at the last moment, i wouldnt put it past them!

[TineeTim]

Pull out at the last moment


:}:}:}:}:}

[pilotdude09]

Well on the news and the Pilbara News yesterday DJ did say they wanted to commence services to 2 towns in WA one being Karratha and the other wasnt stated.

So it would either be Broome (again) or Kal-Boulder.

Just hope they give Karratha some cheap launch fares say $50 bucks, and ill defintley book with them. But i can see them being a whole $5 bucks cheaper in the long run similar to other routes in Australia.

[Capn Bloggs]

Got my big engines last week.

BRING 'EM ALL ON! You too Miffy! :}:}

[neville_nobody]

Cheap seats aren't going to work unless they start getting some contracts with mining companies to fly to these places.

Anyway have any idea how the E190 vs the 717 stacks up? Surely it's going to be cheaper than Ozjet in a 737-100?

[gas-chamber]

Even Ozjet is not that cheap that it runs 737-100, although they probably would if they could find one.

Once Virgin put E jets on runs like Karratha it will be all over for the small players, so don't expect any more than two carriers to survive on such routes. That is still one more than this route ever supported in the past. Bring on the competition.

[neville_nobody]

OK 737-200:rolleyes:

[Stick Pusher]

only way to get into KTA is if you have contracts under your belt otherwise you'll be picking up buggar all of the remaining non contract traffic...

[pilotdude09]

the thing with having contracts is good but almost all QF flights are full because of this and alot of people cant get on flights to/from Karratha.

In August Karratha Airport recorded just over 30,000 people through the airport! not too bad for a town with 12-14,000 people in it! thats almost 1,000 people a day flying to Karratha.

[Skystar320]

Its alright you stacking up the odds with that information pilotdude07 but thats everything included

RPT
FIFO workers
Charters

I would presume (assumptions only) that approx 300 of those pax are FIFO workers with airline contracts.............

I doubt it would work with Virgin Blue, look what they did in Kalgoorlie........

Then again I could be proven wrong

Only time shall tell