Virgin Australia's plans for 2012
 

It will be an interesting year to see what expansion/consolidation is in store for Virgin. The use of Alliance with the F100's seems to indicate they are chasing the north Queensland mining contract work rather than increasing international services.

That presuposes that the two are mutually exclusive.

My understanding is that they are very keen to launch new international services into Asia. They are currently being held back as they have to wait to receive additional A330s. The first 2 A330s (new from Airbus) arriving this year will be for domestic use initially. These will have a new IFE and J class product. The existing A330s will also be updated soon after. There are a further 2 A330s coming (leased from EK I believe). It is likely that once these arrive the Asian expansion can begin.

In addition VA has announced that the 77Ws will all receive a new J & W product this year. At this stage JB has stated that he doesn't need any more 77Ws preferring the flexibility of the A330s. If VA ever decide to further expand their long-haul services using their own metal, this would probably change.

Given the proposed usage of A330s on Asian services it will be interesting to see if VA introduce a W class product to these birds also.

Only the first two aircraft were leased from Emirates - all subsequent A330s are brand new aircraft:

From AviationWA :

The new Virgin Australia A330-243 aircraft are:

•VH-XFC (cn 1293) - To be delivered April 2012
•VH-XFD (cn 1306) - To be delivered May 2012
•VH-XFE (cn 1319) - To be delivered October 2012
•VH-... (cn not yet known) - To be delivered December 2012.

The current leased ex-Emirates A330-243 aircraft are:

•VH-XFA "Cottesloe Beach" (cn 365) - ex A6-EAB
•VH-XFB "Cable Beach" (cn 372) - ex A6-EAC.

So, lets summarise. JB likes the A330, wants more of them, initially orders them in a Domestic config, but is planning to expand into Asia with them where they will be upgraded from the Dom config? Meanwhile has no interest in getting anymore 777 (at least VA have some!) in the near future as he believes the A330 is the vehicle for expansion and flexibility.......

Mmmm, I am sure I have heard this played out before??? Didn't work for QF in a past life did we JB? :rolleyes:

NO, the 330 are for domestic, soon to be SYD/BNE/MEL this is what JB has said. 330 into Asia is just some pilots wishfull thinking. Some more EY/DL/SQ/NZ type deals to come out of Asia this year, and more ATRs into regional ports along with some more domestic services and a few new domestic ones like SYD-DRW and the like.
And if one is looking far far ahead they are looking at the 787/350 to replace BOTH 777/330 long term. Not rocket science.
But the main game is as always to make a PROFIT, if not you can forget the rest!
Oh a new main owner just may come to play.

The 330 will do Asia... Watch this space!

SilverSleuth The 330 will do Asia... Watch this space!

I'm sure it will, but doubt that will be as the thread title asks, in 2012.

Where? The market is saturated. Jetstar can fly me long haul to Singapore for $400 return, EK couple hundred more. AirAsia now $149 SYD-KUL.

The new main owner may be "Etihad" but they want to divide up the international arm from the domestic arm to get around foreign ownership restrictions, so divide and conquer!

The only one who knows where the A330's will fly is JB and he has many options depending on future and current alliances.

It would be interesting to see if Virgin Australia start flying the 777 Sydney - San francisco. (San francisco is Virgin America's hub...)

Surely there's no money in syd - sfo? QF gave it away didn't they? Oh, wait.....:eek:

What is the current fleet size, with so many aircraft coming off lease and being returned along with new aircraft arriving I have lost track. I thought the plan was to increase the fleet by around 5 airframes this year?

With a D/E ratio of 177% they had better work on the profit bit first!

SN

CAO 'Salad Wrap'
 

A source of information tells me this morning that a senior CASA staffer has resigned this week and is headed to VA as GM Catering. It has to be a positive move consdiering CASA spend so much time in coffee shops and cafe's? The new GM can take the culinary expertise over to VA.

As a side point why have so many CASA people jumped ship of late? I am hearing that a stack have left or are in the process of trying to bail. Some of gone to mainline and regional airlines?
Actually I know more than I am letting on for now, but it would certainly seem Fort Fumble's 'just culture' is itself one giant turd!

He's also been employed at DJ in the past. His "expertise" lies in engineering, and apparently has some experience in safety management. So, WTF would you be employed as CATERING general manager? More changes to come, I suspect

Perhaps the wraps need a boroscope inspection?

On day 1 of VA the Catering was managed by a good friend of mine. His only previous experience of catering was feeding horses on cargo flights!

There's no doubt he's being brought into the company for other purposes. What that may be, we'll see!