Vaus Wants To Delay Orders
 

from the Australian....



VIRGIN Blue is asking Boeing to delay delivery of some of its 777s because of a strike by Boeing machinists.

The industrial action has meant the launch of Virgin's V Australia has been pushed into the traditionally quiet post-holiday period.

The airline is due to get two of Boeing's aircraft shortly and might beat its revised launch date for its international offshoot of February 28.

Virgin Blue had originally planned to launch in mid-December to take advantage of the Christmas peak, but was forced to push the date back when a machinists strike at Boeing meant it was unable to get its planes in time.

The delay is understood to have cost the airline about $3million, as it was forced to rebook passengers on alternative flights and keep staff employed without revenue coming in. It has also been forced to cut the price of tickets to reflect the fact it is now launching in a period of lower consumer demand.

It now wants to delay delivery of aircraft three and four to give it time to bed down its initial operations.

Chief executive Brett Godfrey said the airline was talking to Boeing about delivery dates and was seeking flexibility from Boeing given the pain the US aircraft maker had caused it.

He said it was asking for a delay so the first four planes were not delivered so closely together.

"We're going to have our aeroplanes but I just don't want them here all at the same time before we launch," he said.

"So the work I have to do before Christmas is firm up that we can hopefully slide some of the later ones a little bit back. But we're very much on track for the end of February."

Mr Godfrey said Virgin did not have the resources to take four aircraft within the space of time proposed by Boeing.

"And secondly I'd like to get into the market first before we ramp ourselves up to full production," he said.

"Which is what the plan was in December. If you recall, we were going to launch Sydney-LA on December 15 and not look at any further capacity until we launched Brisbane on March 1."

Mr Godfrey said the airline was still looking at capacity cuts on domestic routes but said it was not panicking.

He said he was somewhat reassured by third-quarter figures and was now focused on what was going to happen this quarter.

Mr Godfrey said he believed Australians would still travel, but stay closer to home.

"I'm still a firm believer that retail sales are not a reflection of aviation any more," he said. "People will put off a car right now, they'll put off a white good or a flat screen TV.

"But they still want to travel at Christmas time and they've still got used to the fact that travel has become so affordable that it's become part of their everyday lives."

Meanwhile, figures released this week suggest budget travellers in Australia are in for a good Christmas, with the lowest airfares at a record low for December. Figures show that the best discount fares at the start of the month were 25 per cent cheaper than in December last year. Tourism groups are urging travellers to take advantage of the low fares and catch domestic flights.

no wonder! a number of the drivers for the 777 have now decided to stay where they are with the oz dollar falling off a cliff

It's as much about crewing as anything else.........

Saving money by only having 2 empty planes instead of 4. I hope Obama can turn the USA around quickly when he comes to office.

Management met with C & T department recently to discuss why senior pilots have not taken up positions with V. Management are generally surprised about the lack of interest in V from the VB ranks.

Have heard that because of pilot numbers in the wrong places (as opposed to too many pilots), upper management have been given an ultimatum from BG, fix the problem or your on your bike. BG apparently angry that last on first off was allowed into the last EBA. This means if redundancies occur, the EMB operation will be severely effected. They also want VB FO's to take DEC's with PB on PB terms and conditions. Yeh right!

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

$175 base for a captain on a B777 and 9 days off a month with no roster protection. YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING! :=:=:=:=

Wow DD with your attitude I am sure V management will be racing to give you a direct entry command on the 777. I understand there is a recruitment freeze on at VB so I am not sure if that is the Ultimatium that you are refering to. As for demanding more money when they haven't made a cent yet and VB seem to be positioning for a reduction in pilots numbers, intereresting industrial tactic. Let the ranting begin.......

What's the alternative to a first on last off? Boot someone who has been with you for 4 years while keep the 6 month FO on?? I think the problem is more of a resource allocation than of over staffing.

Minor correction, did you perhaps mean Last in, First off?

Kingswood

The problem is there are too many 737 F/O's and not enough EMB F/O's. If there are lay-offs then the newer recruits are all on the EMB, the exact pool they do not want to loose.

737 F/O's do not want to move to EMB either because of loss of salary. Same reason they don't want to take up the PB command. Also why would they go to V Aus and have 9 days off a roster instead of 12?

mention1:

For the good of the company of course. Years of sacrifice, training, family, sanity.... why wouldn't any pilot be prepared to "take one" for the team!

They (management) really do not have any idea do they!

LR3 -

The "massive shareholdings" are practically worthless now. Some of them, however, did make millions early on in the piece when the business was much more focused. Share price now around 28 cents.

As it stands now, executive largesse and corporate inaction has crippled the organisation to the point where it is rudderless and yet, it's allegedly about to start an international operation to the world's biggest sinking economy.

If it's true, Tiger into Sydney will also further undermine the VB operation.

Someone in Virgin has to have the balls to rein this lot in and get the company back to a long term sustainable operating mode.

It's Ansett all over again if they don't.

Go figure.:ugh:

Coaldemon,

You are correct, I hope management will not race to give me command on the B777, just like they have done with the other pilots at VB. The attitudes are directly proportional to what is a fair salary for a "FAIR" days work! If my attitudes are directly proportional to how the whole VB/VAUS recruitment process was sold to us during the EBA as opposed to how the actual recruitment process has panned out, and how crap the package is at VAUS for a pilot, well so be it!

The ultimatum I was refering to was the poor management application of resourse planning and an EBA clause that severely effects the companies abilities to kull in areas where its needed, and grow in others areas where required.

Demanding more money when the company has not even started yet is a lame argument. The package is very substandard, its a package that is less than the B737, in every way. So if you believe that is what you are worth, good for you, but I will then have to reserve the right to express my opinion of what I think of you, as you have expressed your opinion of what you think of me.

"Doctor, would you like to come and operate at our new hospital, its got the state of the art gear, but its a start up hospital and I can only pay 2/3rds of the going rate for your services, please help us out, and I will look after you when things get going and times are better, you will have no say about your schedule, and if you brown nose hard enough and don't dare to buck the system, I may one day make you a senior surgeon."

And the Doctors would come flooding, yeh right!

My understanding is that VB management see pilot employment at Virgin as type specific.So they think they can retrench off the 737 whilst employing on the EMB.

Whatever "they", (management) think is irrelevant. What the EBA says re: redundency is where the outcome will lie.

It's not hard - transfer 737 FO's to the EMB on 737 wages. Airlines do it all the time all over the world.

Grivation,

That offer is on the table as of last week. The offer is 6 months as an Ejet FO on 737 wages and after 6, months they will be offered a command slot on the Ejet (if suitable) or remain on the Ejet as an FO on Ejet pay or return to the 737.

It looks that way to me too. But what to do?

Folks,
This thread is about V Australia - not VB. Let's get back on track, eh? If you want to talk about VB crewing matters please start another thread.

TID

I think one of the big problems for this VOZ debacle is that if BG had come out and said that the international operation was not going ahead, it would have had serious knock on effects in the public's confidence in the domestic VB - With obvious Ansett like ramifications.

If the "neurosurgeons" in Brisbane have got any sense, they'll come up with a plan that enables VOZ to be "quietly" cut adrift so that the remainder of the company has some chance of surviving over the longer term.

VA VB and PB are all seen as separate companies.If VA is not viable on it's own it will be cut loose rather than drag VB down with it.