6100

Yes, I'm aware of the bleeding obvious.

My question relates to the novel idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket.
VAtlantic are running down to HKG-SYD. I would of thought that Vaus running up to HKG would have provided both synergies and an established market. That would be a very good revenue source for the startup.
After all BG stated that one reason for the LA and Joburg is to connect the Virgin network.
Why not HKG (and yes, that would mean diverting aircraft!).

Voz is an independant company.

To operate on SYD - HKG would mean they are directly competing with another Virgin carrier. It is not a particulally successful route for Virgin Atlantic either.

They are fully aware they would lose the battle, when V Atlantic can offer a far superior product, for what would be a similar price.

The USA is a market with few operators, where they can successfully brand themselves as the only alternative to Qantas.

To Hong Kong they have to compete with Virgin Atlantic, Cathay, Qantas, British Airways etc.

I think they'll stick with their current plan!

BA fly SYD - HKG ?

Maybe someone can help me here - Saw VH-VOZ at standoff on wed 4/3 at 1500 ESST in melb. In the same spot at 1700 on thur 5/3 and again at 1200 on fri 6/3. Considering that the a/c cannot have been to the US and back within these timeframes is it operational yet? expensive billboard otherwise???

drivabilongbalus

VH-VOZ is sitting in MEL waiting for the Avalon airshow. Meanwhile, VH-VPD has taken over the thrice weekly SYD-LAX runs.
Come mid March, VOZ will join VPD on the SYD-LAX route, to commence daily services.

A comfy chair, have you seen the product from VA? Business class is much better I think(aesthetically) compared to atlantic. As to the others, economy is the same pitch to QF premium & only 9seats across compared to EK.

Whether a not a product is the same as say Qantas, or looks better than Atlantic is largely irrelivant. They are established carriers with good codesharing to many destinations. They have the market continuing on to Europe, which is a large part of their operations, a market that Voz really can't tap into - they are mostly limited to the AUS - HK traffic.

Hong Kong is a market with much competition, and Voz will stay away from it until they are established.

After all, why not cherry pic the biggest routes with the lowest competition?

Syd-Hkg doesn't appear to be good for Virgin Atlantic but I was told this is because they aren't allowed to carry a full load of passengers. Something to do with getting the right to fly into Australia they agreed not to pick up full loads. This may not be true but I have heard this on several occasions from various sources. Cargo is apparently very good though. V Australia could easily do the SYD-HKG and link up with one of the 2 Virgin Atlantic flights to bring traffic from Europe.


The V Australia product is superb. The J service is taking forever due to inexperienced crews and the companies insistence that all PAX have their table laid up a la First Class. This might work in a first class cabin with 14 PAX and 3 crew but with 33 PAX and 4 crew it just takes too long. V Australia definately need to look at changing the service so that everything is delivered on a tray to speed things up. The flight departs late and people want to sleep, not wait 3 hours for the service to complete.

Economy is really rather nice. 3,3,3 seating and lovely wide seats. IFE is top notch too.

Premium economy is average with 2,4,2 seating. They really should have gone with 2,3,2 like Virgin Atlantic.

Me thinks bias on this thread!

I checked in plenty of full LHR-HKG-SYD when I worked for them in T3.

Personally I think V Aussie is a great product. They have taken advantage of QFs biggest F**k up, never getting the B777.

The B777 is an amazing aircraft, and it gives company accountants hard ons the world over.

I really hope the Virgin Blue group hang in their and stick it to QF!!

Horserun, why the animosity towards QF? Most QF employees want V Oz to succeed as they would rather compete with an Australian carrier on the route rather than allow SQ, EK, CX, etc onto the route. Don't forget that apart from QF, V Oz will be competing with four other carriers on the route (United, Delta, Air NZ & American Airlines) - if they focus on QF only they may get broardsided by the other carriers.

Why the animosity towards QF? The great Australian trait of Tall Poppy Syndrome.

V Australia looks like a great product and I hope they do well. I would definitely consider flying with them.

why the aniimosity toward Qantas?
 

I think it probably has a bit more to do with the fact that fares to LA have halved since V aus entered the market.

Another case of Qantas ripping off the punters, just because they can.

Having said that, it may prove to be the saving grace of V aus. Punters may give them a go, even though they're probably a bit green and rough round the edges, just so they can give their money to someone other than Qantas.

At the end of the day V Oz has made a bare bones investment in this airline. I know many people on this site love a good QF bashing and frankly there are many times they have deserved it, but at the end of the day V Oz is paying Tech and Cabin crew lower than average wages, they are not employing check in staff, not using VB bag chuckers, no VB engineers will be trained on the 777 and yet Branson and Godfrey will have you all believe they are gods gift to the industry.

All the maintenance and turn arounds in Aus will be done by Singapore Engineerings poor little brother AMSA, I doubt there will be much training in it for the guys there, any heavy work will be done by SIAEC in Singapore, even though JHAS tried to keep the work in country.

Even though QF management couldn't organise a raffle in a pub they have invested more into the A380 circus than Branson and Godfrey could dream of.

More Australians will benefit financially from flying the A380 than the Oz 777, sad but true, it might give the VB bosses a warm fuzzy feeling to take on QF but they should start employing more Australians before telling the world they are going to change the world.

Going B, American dont operate to oz.

6100
 

If I ran a business with a duopoly ie trans pac, I'd charge what the market would cop.Its not charity.Discount only when absolutely necessary.BHP , RIO ,CVRD have been gouging iron ore buyers while the going was good.Cover for the bad times.

Sadly not many airline execs heed your call.:ooh:

Some fair points in there Boostrap!:ok:

And just think if they added $3-6 onto every ticket, they may actually make some money :ugh:

On the long haul maybe $30-60 more.

And would anyone really care..... No.:ugh:

Yes they do. It's a code share on QF flights which have an AA flight number in addition to QF's flight number. It is a very significant number of seats on every flight & it is income for QF even if AA don't fill the seats. AA has a very large marketing ability which has for a number of years helped QF fill six B744 services a day to LAX (the number of flights has reduced in recent times). The fact is, as far as V Oz is concerned, in a marketing sense, they are competing with AA as much as the airlines that operate their own aircraft on the route.