Bunglerat...WAY too balanced and sensible for this forum :E

Thank you crew rest i get the picture, if it was a command position that was driving me i would look else where. You do sound a little consumed by getting a command, why is that?

What bunglerat said.

Geez bunglerat last time I said something positive like that I was "accused" of being management!

Fully agree with bunglerat. The bidding system is great it allows you to bid for the lifestyle you want. Some guys what day trips, others want 4 day trips and then there are those who want to overnight at a certain port or those who want to be on reserve. The options are there, even for Ejet pilots.

WRT to basing, where are the Ejet pilots based? Is there scope to request a particular base or are they just allocated?

Ejet is all bases:BNE SYD MEL PER.
73 is all the above bar:PER
330 is:SYD maybe MEL one day down the track
777 is:SYD

So you can see that SYD has all types. HQ is BNE but there is an office in SYD where I'm lead to believe the big boss operates out of. Hangar in BNE and a new one going up in SYD hope that helps.

thanks Mr Hat. Is there any major differences WRT where you are based? Rostering, routes etc?

PER has more day trips as the majority of the work is mining related. I'd say the operation is similar to say National Jet or Skywest with different conditons obviously.

I'm not sure about the east coast differences- GAFA or Bunglerat may know. Apparently BNE gets better trips and some more days off but this is only what I hear others say.

Ultimately the bidding system allows you to try and target what you want.

Thanks once again

Hows the new Virgin ad on TV?

The pilots drive tugs, the crew walk on the tarmac with no high vis vests and I cant see anyones ASIC card, and the pilots are holding a folder, whats in it, an MR?

GA in jets.

Really Bunglerat???
Not sure I really agree with your said comment above. :ugh:

However the rest of what you said is a pretty good idea of how the Virgin Australia operation works. :ok:

330 reasons:

Bigger factor
More money for Ejet guys
More employability
A Change
Excitement
Good guys on the fleet
No 5 sector days
Few overnights

Nice is what you like. Good on em.

The only blokes I have come across with the "my jets bigger than yours" issue is the guys driving the - what they consider - a bigger jet - no offense lads they are both light twins. Think otherwise and your kidding yourself.

Some fair points raised about my comments, re the A330. It's true that an E-Jet F/O transferring across to it would see a significant hike in pay, & admittedly my comments were biased from the perspective of a 737 driver (in which case the pay issue is really no incentive at all), & we also have some excellent Check Captains who went across, of which I would be very happy to share a cockpit with. But those points aside, I stand by my comments that, if you're already on the 737, I fail to see any major incentive to jump across - for the reasons I already stated. I'm already A330 endorsed, & on that basis alone would have been only too happy to make the move, but a measly 5% pay increase - offset by a reduction in total pay due to reduced overnight allowances - along with a base transfer & the prospect of doing nothing but Perth returns for the foreseeable future, just didn't add up for me.

Nevertheless I still maintain that the company is a good place to be right now, & the future does look promising.

Lighten up will 'ya!! It's only an ad! You gotta admit the girls look hot!!

........and bunglerat dont forget you love me handing your paperwork to you:p

Just a quick Q,

why would VA push for a delta tie up when Star Alliance member ship would be a true winner. I thought Continental and Cactus would be good partners, got all the chinese, thai, and massive connections in EU. I am thinking of possibilities such as CNS/DWN to BKK, would have through plus dct pax. Also isn't Virgin Atlantic joining, thats your connections through HK. You have Midland in the Uk, Austrian for Vienna, Air Canada, ANA, and even Adria for Athens and greek connections. When you compare this with sky team I can't see why you would push for delta tie up. Sky team are based out of awkward ports that would not support direct flights eg romania and prague.

Redjet I think he was looking at the lighter side...

Mikk-13 agree with you too ... Strange indeed given virgin atlantics position...

Could it be that Star Alliance don't want VA?

Star Alliance invited John Borghetti to their annual conference in Queesntown NZ late last year.

Re: For those talking about joining Star Alliance

Rebranded Virgin prepares for a tough battle

"Mr Borghetti .....

He also played down suggestions that he was looking at joining the Star Alliance.

"The time for thinking about joining an alliance will come, but now is not the time," he said, noting his main focus was strong bilateral relationships, and that alliance membership had drawbacks as well as advantages."

6 A330's for VB...woops, I mean VA.
 

Virgin Australia beefs up Asian strategy | The Australian

VIRGIN Australia's Asian strategy could include Airbus A330 international services as it boostS its fleet to up to six of the widebody jets. The airline has two ex-Emirates A330s poised to go into service on its new Sydney-Perth services and will receive two new aircraft early next year configured with Virgin's upgraded business class.
"When they first come in we will take the two existing ones out for about a month, upgrade the product . . . and bring them back on," chief executive John Borghetti said.
An additional two planes are expected to arrive from Emirates in 2012-13 and Mr Borghetti said plans at this stage were to operate them domestically.
"But my mind's not closed to the opportunity of doing international with them," he said. "So that's why I'm leaving it a little bit open."
Mr Borghetti is on the hunt for Asian partners after the US Department of Transportation this week shelved its objections to the carrier's trans-Pacific alliance with Delta Air Lines.He intends to announce an Asian strategy by the end of the calendar year and said the move "was on track and going to plan".
The DoT approval, which is subject to a 14-day comment period, comes after the airlines convinced the US regulator of the alliance's consumer benefits, such as better pricing and improved schedules and frequencies.
The approval has been welcomed by analysts and boosted the carrier's share price on Wednesday, though it closed unchanged yesterday. The Macquarie Equities team, headed by Russell Shaw, said the approval was a crucial hurdle in the airline's game change strategy and predicted it could add $300 million to pre-tax profit if V Australia was able to increase its share of premium traffic to 20 per cent.
"Assuming the final route approval is received, we expect to see improving profitability on the route in the medium term as the number of effective competitors is reduced from four to three," Macquarie said.
It believes two Asian partners are required to round out the Asian strategy and says Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines are ideal candidates.
However, the analysts say a deal with Cathay is unlikely because of its oneworld affiliations and they do not see much value for Singapore given its existing presence in Australia.
"Strong second choice candidates in our view are Malaysian Airlines and Korean Air, where VBA's incoming A330s can be used to augment existing services, forming a more attractive offering to premium customers," they said.

So what carrier did the E70s go to? One has already left and another is departing in a few days.

Two E170's have now left the country with ZHB leaving CS yesterday. They are all going to a North American Airline who has to ties with Virgin Australia.

Sunstar 320

See the last paragraph of the article here

Maybe Delta could give/lease Virgin some of there wide bodies that are parked up in the desert when the asian routes get announced?

Could Virgin Australia launch flights from other Australian ports into Hong Kong? Not Sydney obviously as that would remain Virgin Atlantic, but with the Virgin Atlantic codeshare you could have a one stop, "all-Virgin" service to the UK. A nice way to link the brands without necessarily taking traffic from each other (though Cathay would probably have something to say about it).

Virgin Australia to Abu Dhabi, Etihad from there to Europe, etc. (with 77W)

Virgin Australia to Hong Kong, Virgin Atlantic from there to the UK. (with A333)

I guess it would seem unlikely unless Cathay agrees to play ball, but if they could get CX on board, that's a nice ready made Asian network to play with too.

Had a look inside VH - YFC (the new 738) today very impressed! Nice look and feel in the cabin. The new business class section is a huge step up from the old premium economy.

Also noticed there is not PTV yet. Does anyone have any idea when its getting fitted ?

It all blends together with the c/crew uniform very nicely.

Exactly, love the whole look they are going for. Really hope DJ is successful with it. They just need to work on OTP now !

JB has said the A330's WON'T be going to Asia, unless he cannot tie up with an Asian carrier. Next 2 will go to ml-ph 2 after that possibly bn-ph and another syd or ml as required. He stated he doesn't want any more direct international exposure or operations. Any future overseas destinations will be via tie ups with current operators, unless he can't get a deal with one.

Do you think that will last forever?

The entire western world is addicted to unsustainable growth.

A public company cannot fathom sitting on it's lot and being happy. It needs to consume more and more, the stock price needs to grow and grow, and the company needs to expand and expand.

Look at Qantas. They operate in a niche market and they did it very well. Unfortunately for management, to get their performance bonuses via the targets set in their contracts, they need to think of more and more cunning ways to grow. Aka Jetstar, then Jetstar Asia, now Qantas Asia.

A pity, Qantas and Virgin for that matter were the most profitable before they chased growth.

Once JB does what he set out to do, (and he will do it) he will gracefully retire. The next guy/gal will need to follow a similar strategy to Qantas to perpetuate unsustainable growth. His/her contract will demand it.

You'll then end up with the management who put Qantas into the ground running Virgin.

The architects behind Ansetts demise are at the helm of Qantas right now and they think the ship is unsinkable. We all know what happened there.....

Don't see the word forever in my post. It isn't his preferred idea, his words not mine. After he leaves all bets are off, just as they would be at any other airline. My post was to correct some people's impressions or ideas, according to the source What exactly was yours?

In interviews this week JB indicated A330,s to Asia. 5/6 arrive early 2012 and will be into Asia.

I wonder if any of the next lot of planes on order will actualy fly, or will they stay on the ground at JHAS also, getting fixed like the first two buckets ??

The A330 was chosen for it's flexibility i.e it can operate around Australia and Asia if required so the TL refueller tells me.

Cactus, would you rather they just fly them without fixing them? :confused: Any second hand aircraft will require some defect rectification before entry to service. They will still be a damn sight cheaper than new A330s when they are up and running.

Post 144-

"The A330 WILL ONLY BE USED DOMESTICALLY for the foreseeable future, even with the arrival of number 3 and 4.

It amazes me that people come on here to spin cr@p or spread bull$hit."

Nice work Servo :ok:

question I have is: will the economy product change or will it be the same pig- at-a-trough-off-the-cart crap that VB, jetstar and tiger serve up? If so, whats the change apart from a few bigger chairs up the front?