VB to buy Air Van?

[rexxxxxy]

Heard from a fairly credible source that Virgin Blue has just done a deal with the Vanuatu goverment to buy 50% of Air Vanuatu, in a similar deal that they did with Poly.

It would mean PB getting the AVN crew and plane, re-branding as Pac Blue and flying ex VLI to AKL, SYD, BNE.

Starting later this year....

Anyone care to confirm? :cool:

[ANstar]

Interesting... with 4 737's leaving domestic ops and Godfrey hinting that they could go to international last night on a Sky Biz interview this could have some credibility!

[shazza26]

I find that hard to believe as the aircraft is basically specd by QF and and they are in code share with QF! Even think QF may own some of Air Van.

[lordofthewings]

Not going to happen.The locals pride themselves in having an aeroplane painted in their colours, too many locals will lose jobs, just a political stunt because the local government coming up foe re-election.To add to this the aircraft is not owned by air van rather leased from ilfc, you would be buying 50% of fu.k all. Not even worth it for the routes as VB or PB already able to fly there on a reciprocating agreement.
But i have been wrong before..

[Lasiorhinus]

And here was me thinking Virgin Blue had decided they needed something smaller than their Embraers, for the very small routes, and were buying Airvans...

You can fit a lot more pax into an airvan than in that cherokee they had at Moorabbin..

[apacau]

I hear the Air Van deal is confirmed with possibly other deals in the wind? I guess we have to look out for announcements.

[Yusef Danet]

It makes sense where a small Pacific country doesn't quite justify a whole 737, W Samoa for instance, but Air Van seems to have excellent utilisation of the 738 as they did for the 733. And then the turboprop and Islander feeder routes, vital to the running of the country, wouldn't be of interest to VB or stand alone.

I can think of Pacific countries more compatible with the successful Poly Blue business model. How's that Honiara route working out?

Mind you, I'd happily take a secondment to the Twotter. That looks like fun.

[donkey punch]

Rumour has it, air van is ruled by the dark lord!!

[pervert]

The dark lord indeed my good man, good luck trying to get the boys to stay in Vila for less then their getting now.

Perv

[Flying Monk]

I have heard a senior NF staff member refer to DJ as "The Evil Empire" and there would certainly be a rebellion if the "Dark Lord" was really stalking the national carrier of Vanuatu.

[blackbandit]

Deal was never really entertained by NF.

Qantas is referred to as the Evil Empire.

And yes, the Dark Lord should be feared, because he is devious, cunning, and is pissed right off.

[_SKYGOD_]

Fear Not The Dark Lord. He Pales To Nothingness Compared To The _skygod_.

[pervert]

There back, VB headshed back in town again this week.

The DARK LORD is a little pussy cat....meow.....

Perv.

[captaintunedog777]

Ha ha with bl00dy what? With a share price of .75c Monopoly money is about all they could use. Interesing times bwwwwwwwwwwwaa

[pervert]

I think these days you get about 130 Vatu to the monoply dollar:ok:.

[Long John Silver]

I think the airvan would be a great choice for VB. The pax can load thier own frieght and the pod is quite roomy. The inflight entertainement of staring at your own knees may wear a litte thin though. The sim is quite cheap to purchase too - its basically just a guy with a blindfold being pulled around in a billy cart. I think they've named it the pushmepullyou

[donkey punch]

i think everyone has it wrong, word is, airvan is about to buy virgin, yes, you heard it here first!!!!!!!! don't underestimate the power of the melanesian mind!!!

[Cloud Cutter]

This has been in the pipelines for months. I think it's all but a done deal.

I believe Samoa still makes pretty good use of a whole 737 Yusef?

Add Noumea to the list.

[Yusef Danet]

Umm, which whole 737 is Samoa supposed to use? ZK-PBF, the Poly Blue aircraft flies other Pacific Blue routes, you'll see it in Mel/Bne/Vila et al.

[Cloud Cutter]

Yes I realise that. Just as aircraft other than PBF operate to and from Samoa. I think if you look at all SYD-APW and AKL-APW sectors they'd use the better part of at least one aircraft. It's pretty impractical to designate one specific aircraft all the time.

[Yusef Danet]

Not really Cutter

As far as I can tell, Apia gets a total of 50 hours per week of flying in/out to AKL and SYD.

That doesn't really justify a whole 737 when you consider that a lot of that flying is overnight. I would say its about 0.7 equivalent airframes, so using Pac Blue resources and economy of scale nicely justifies the model. I would say the rest of an airframe could be well used to do all of the Tonga flying to/from Akl/Syd, another 32 hours per week.

From an outsider's perspective, Air Van seems to get its money's worth out of its 1.0 airframes, which is difficult to improve on.

I would be concerned that the Aus-Vanuatu market, an economically vital tourist run for the country, would be a one horse show.

[Chocks Away]

More than 1 aircraft is dedicated to the Samoa runs now from Auckland, not just the one doing the "boomerang".

[rexxxxxy]

PB starting SYD-VLI 2x weekly from OCT...looks like it is going ahead..

[Humber10]

I used PB to fly from Villa to Wellies a couple of years ago, and was left stranded by PB in CHCH and PB staff went out of their way to ignore me and the fact I was not where I had paid to be (disrupt).

After I went to their head office and complained, which the receptionist told me I had to do on the phone..... PB gave me some gift vouchers to smooth things over. Needless to say I have never used them and nor will I.

I think its a shame if Air Van are going into this association with virgin. Air Van were 200% better with their customer service, and got you where you actually paid to be.

[Johnny_Fabulous]

Rexxy...do you really think QF will let PB have a monopoly on the Vanuatu routes.. don't think so.

How's the sim going...don't be scared.

[shazza26]

I agree with johnny

[ithinkso]

As was peviously mentioned, the Government of Vanuatu, never really entertained the idea of a sale. They were fishing to see what they could get from the sale of their airline. It's a very cheap and accurate way to get a realistic valuation. As there are elections in September, does anyone really think they,(the politicians), would sell the only successful Ni-Vanuatu business???

As far as pacific islands go, Vanuatu, is by far the pick , and by far the best run. Vanuatu was the ONLY independent pacific island to qualify for the millenium fund.

Of course, they then proceeded to steal the money.