Virgin Blue to operate NZ Domestic
 

Well Pacific Blue actually.

Announced today by Brett Godfrey with the finacial results.

:DFinally confirmation! Embraer jets in NZ! Cant wait! Any route annoucements yet? Will they go head to head with AirNZ and Kiwijet?

NZ population a little over 4 million. About the size of Melbourne I guess. The country is small enough to drive most places so it is only the inter island that makes driving less of an option. The only high density routes are AKL-WLG,AKL-CHC. Qantas already cherry pick on these routes and avoid the others that don't have sufficient traffic. How another airline is justified beats me. Airfares are not out of reach of the general populace if you are organized so this won't start a drift to a new airline. Best of luck to them but one of the smaller ones won't survive.

Depending on airfare prices and routes Virgin choose

Kiwijet

Is it really confirmation of Embraer jet coming to NZ? Not sure the Embraer is best suited to NZ.

Will they go head to head with Air NZ and Kiwijet. Well, it would seem obvious to me that they will be head to head with Air NZ unless they have discovered some obscure routes that need a jet service not already covered by Air NZ.

As for Kiwijet, it's doubtful they will go head to head with anyone.

I think billyt summed it up very well.

Hopefully they fly into Dunedin.

DUD has i think the best terminal in New Zealand and theres only one airline flying out of it NZ/SJ.

Also the prices NZ charge out of DUD can be horrendous so there is a need of competition especially on DUD-CHC and a couple more flights to AKL wouldnt hurt.

Routes to be named on Thursday :cool:
I think the Embraer jets are well suited here, they aint alot of aeroplane, suited to smaller airports, low operating and fuel costs.

I didn't see or hear anything about Embraer aircraft being involved.

What else would they use if they didnt use the E-Jets?

The 737's are too big for a new comer into the NZ market and wouldnt be profitable. And cant get into and out of alot of airports in NZ where as the E-jets can.

If DJ really want to suceed they need to take NZ head on the monoply routes which isnt the triangle its the regional routes where people would prefer to drive because it costs so bloody much! The triangle is profitable but there are other airports in NZ which can make money.

DJ into Domestic NZ
 

Has this got anything to do with a certain GM from Mt Cook Airline who has defected to DJ in Aus, taking the Air NZ intellectual property of the domestic market, the same person who i believe did a study on e-jets for Air NZ and the same person that did six trips to Brizzy in his last year with the old firm? It may be that this will come back to bite Asymmetric Pete in the a....re when Mt Cook actually get the e-jet shortly.............bring on the competition i say, DJ is welcome to the said person..........

What are you smoking mate? Mt Cook are not going to get jets.........the fleet replacement are those flying pigs you see flying past. Wake up!:ugh:

Forget NZ seems that Virgin are still looking at an ultra low cost, to compete with Tiger, while a new world Virgin, complete with resplendent new business class seats competes with Qf...

Can't see the E-jet in NZ. More likely some triangulation of the existing Tasmans with the B738.

Mt Cook jets
 

MCA crews lost the prospect of jets when ZEAL was created - combining NZ/SJ A320 drivers. There are some peed off senior guys @ MCA, a-la one GM! :{

SJ only exisits because they used Mount Cook Groups AOC! Part of that was that if jets came domesitcally for the regions MCA would drive them.

@

The ERJ-145 - mooted by KiwiJet - was discussed in another forum here. They need LOTS of runway. The ERJ-170 however is way better.

This from Embraers site:

Take Off Field Length, ISA, SL, MTOW 1,644m
Take Off Field Length, ISA, SL, TOW for 500nm 1,147m
Landing Field Length, SL, MLW 1,273m

Which means most all of the regional airports can take it! :ok:

Wonder if the announcement will spur ANZ to quicken the 733 replacement?? Guess who's just returned from another trip to France to "look over the Airbus facilities". A319 anyone?

Though Capt. XX has also just come back from the States! Oshkosh visit my left one! There's a photo of you @ Boeing! :O Cud it be a 737NG (-600/700)??

Don't count on it............................. :ooh:

From the SMH website yesterday:

August 21, 2007 - 1:49PM

Australian airline Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd said it will make an announcement on Thursday regarding the launch of a New Zealand domestic airline.

Virgin Blue subsidiary Pacific Blue, which flies to New Zealand, will give details about launch routes, fares and the airline's long term strategy.

New Zealand's domestic air services are dominated by Air New Zealand, with Qantas flying a smaller number of services.

A United States investor plans to launch low-cost domestic airline, Kiwijet, late next year.

Virgin Blue is Australia's second-largest airline behind Qantas and majority owned by Toll Holdings, which operates transport services in New Zealand including rail and inter-island ferries.

Travel agent Flight Centre said the announcement was a welcome surprise.

"Increased competition can only be a good thing for New Zealand travellers, who have been demanding more flight availability," Flight Centre general manager Rick Hamilton said.

Air New Zealand, on the other hand, said it was not surprised to learn of the launch of a low-cost domestic airline.

"Since Air New Zealand announced several months ago that it had a significant review of its domestic operations under way that were expected to yield the next evolution in the travel experience within New Zealand, we have heard murmurings of competitors bringing forward their launch plans," Air NZ executive Norm Thompson said.

Mr Thompson said Air New Zealand consistently benchmarked itself against airlines around the globe, including airlines in Australia, and was confident in its ability to perform and compete.

Virgin Blue said on Tuesday it had nearly doubled full-year earnings after attracting more corporate travellers, helping offset rising fuel bills.

Virgin Blue said it expected further revenue growth this year but also higher costs as it sets up new services in New Zealand and to the United States.

Net profit for the year to June 30 was $A216 million compared with $A112 million a year earlier. Net profit before one-off items was $A232 million.

This compared with analyst expectations of $A204.4 million, according to the mean of 9 forecasts on Reuters Estimates.

Shares in Air New Zealand were down 2.6 per cent, or 6c, at $2.29 early Tuesday afternoon.

I think the embraer MIGHT be on the cards but not in the short term. VB have there hands full at the moment sorting out there own e-jet introduction and working on the 777 program. My feeling is we gonna be flying a combo of existing 800's and some hand me down 700's from VB's fleet to get things started.

I agree that the e-jet is probably the way to go in NZ but will take time to happen.

Get ready for the AIR NZ rhetoric bull**** to start on how much they care about making air travel affordable for the average kiwi.

Let the domestic battle commence

With Air New Zealand doing all of the Heavy Maintenance on the Virgin Blue fleet, and also all of the Line Maintenance for the Pacific Blue fleet, it will be interesting to see just how much they continue to support Virgin if this gets dirty.

Announcement to be made at 10:00 am Kiwi time Thursday. Local papers already reporting that it will be Emb Jets. Wouldn't be like the Press to go off half cocked and get it wrong would it?

Air NZ people saying that there airfares are about as cheap as they will get and that a new carrier wont drive the prices down :}

Television news today stated that VB will start with the "major" routes, so maybe this is an indication that they might start with 737's?

I like compitition :E

It will be 737s. Embraers to be used elsewhere.

If it is 737's they really limit themselves to making a profitable go of things.

Auckland, Wellington, Rotorua, Hamilton, Christchurch, Dunedinm Invercargill, Queenstown

The above are the main centres and having a 700/800 running anything but the Triangle AKL-WLG-CHC will most likley see DJ not do very well. QF can barely get good loads on any of it routes and NZ fills up the 733.

Might be alright for a year or so but the money is going to be in the smaller centres where there is the NZ monoply at the moment like Hamilton, Dunedin, Nelson, Tauranga etc.

Pac Blue
 

I agree Pac Blue should do very well out of Dud been no real competition for too long so long as the schds dont go head to head.
Been too good for too long for the national carrier

Sounds Like Dunedin and Queenstown arent going to be recieving services to start off with. Shame when Dunedin is filling over 80% of ALL flights in and out of the airport on average.

Also alot of people seem to forget that over half of NZ does live in "Regional" areas which arent served adequatley and havent been since the Ansett NZ and Qantas NZ and even the Origin Pacific Days.

http://www.odt.co.nz/article.php?ref...1b425ad&sect=0

Announced with $39 launch fares with 2 737-800s operating the main triangle trunk services only.

Only starting with Auckland, Wellington & Christchurch:yuk: I really thought Dunedin would have been included!

Don't worry Aero Junkie mate, they will be there soon. Seems like every second ATR leaving CH is heading down there with a good load on it.

Anyone know what the drivers are being paid?
Still just AA and CH bases?
cher

They would be silly not to start off their! And as you said horserun they are hauling good pax numbers in and out of Dun! News has it that Virgin has another 2 routes that they are thinking about, 1 in the north, 1 in the south, and are to be named within 2 months. Hamilton/Rotorua? Quuenstown/Dunedin?:hmm:

This does appear to be good timing. Qantas/Jetstar are distracted by the Tiger startup in Australia and the NZ Jetconnect operation is plagued with reliability issues and poor pilot retention causing further difficulty. They also pulled out of WLG-CHC leaving an opening for a new entrant. The frequency of the PB AKL-WLG services indicates the targeting of corporate customers. It's a shame PB don't have descent COS otherwise I'd be interested.

I think there will be plenty of red ink spilled by everyone over the next 12 months.

Well aerostatic, if the AKL-WLG schedule is targeting corporate customers they are sure missing the target in my case. A choice 0f 16.00 or 1900 for the return home is no choice at all. And as for WLG-CHC......*****!!!!!

Interesting to note this from the Profit Announcement press release has gone unmentioned:

You are bang on! :ok: :D I agree with your statement 100%
There time table:
Auckland to Wellington..............Auckland to Christchurch
6.45am - 7.45am......................9.30am - 11.05pm
11.20am -12.20pm....................5.30pm - 6.50pm
2.30pm - 3.30pm
4.00pm - 5.00pm......................Christchurch to Auckland
7.00pm - 8.00pm......................9.30am - 10.50am
.............................................2.05pm - 3.25pm
Wellington to Auckland
8.15am - 9.15am......................Wellington to Christchurch
1.00pm - 2.00 pm......................8.15am - 9.00am
4.00pm - 5.00pm.......................12.50pm - 1.35pm
5.30pm - 6.30pm........................8.45pm - 9.30pm
8.45pm - 9.45pm
.............................................Christchurch to Wellington
.............................................6.45am - 7.30am
.............................................11.35am - 12.20pm
.............................................7.20pm - 8.05pm

Wel-Chc/ Chc-Wel :mad::mad:

All done on 2 aircraft :}

PB will have to do better than this!
 

ROUTE AND PRICE COMPARISON ON PACIFIC BLUE AND AIR NZ
AKL-WLG Year Round Lead-in fares : Flexi Saver : Fully Flexi
Pacific Blue $69 : $329 : $359
Air NZ $69 : $184 : $279
Comparison $0 : -$145 : -$80
AKL-CHC Lead-in : Flexi Saver : Fully Flexi
Pacific Blue $79 : $349 : $389
Air NZ $79 : $204 : $332
Comparison $0 : -$145 : -$57
CHC-WLG Lead-in : Flexi Saver : Fully Flexi
Pacific Blue $59 : $259 : $279
Air NZ $59 : $154 : $222
Comparison $0 : -$105 : -$57
*Effective September 1

What exactly is meant by High Density seating??

Ever heard of a sardine?:}

Surely they can't possibly squeeze in more seats ?? I don't see how it would be possible? :mad:

slamer I don't think it's NZ that the Virgin Group have in their gun sights...

yup. no point in taking nz on. national carrier will almost always have the number 1 position.
Best you plan to be number 2 and do it well... poor qf/jetconnect.

Pilotdude09 asked ,

I think P/Blue's entry is premature to grab market share and head off the entry of any competitors.

They already hold an Air Operator's Certificate for the 738. It's that simple.

Gaining an AOC for the E-170 could take until mid 2008.

As for E-170s using regional airports, let's not forget how many have PCNs of just 10 or 12. Even Nelson is just PCN 19.

I don't think they are going to see black ink until the ink is dry on an AOC for the E-170

aero junkie quote..."I think the Embraer jets are well suited here, they aint alot of aeroplane, suited to smaller airports, low operating and fuel costs."

mate...you obviously do not have any experience with this type of equipment

I fly mainline(320) but we have close to 60 of these smaller jets as a feeder operation......talking to the bean counters,,,,their fuel and operating costs are NOT low,they are a lot of aeroplane(Mtx costs are not cheap)and we use them into ORD,JFK,ATL.....some of the buisiest airports in the world.......

.......ask Continental Airlines why they got rid of a sh@te load of them....they are not cheap to operate

I think you jumped the gun a bit there buddy:= Think before you speak

Since when did Continental have 170's?:8 Did I say anything about 145's? No, Do VB have 145's No. Experience, shows how much you know to...