I am sorry I do not have multiple logons and can not retort in the same "creative" fashion.

As to your quote, this is how you do it correctly:

I have no idea who and or what that allegedly scalding and incriminating statement was is response to, so again you have affirmed what a gem of a personality you bestow upon the world.

Lets assume I was having a swipe at the low cost model, which seems likely, that statement would highlight the conundrum, and also the reason why the LCC model and flooding market with cheap airfares will eventually fail.

The world is a nicer place when you take your lithium tablets.

I am glad the Virgin and Skywest guys/gals are happy and convinced that they are on the correct path for success and blindly believe so.

Krustys question were reasonable, respectful and perhaps highlight questions you would prefer to stick your head in the sand over.

I say again, do not under estimate the magnitude of the task they have embarked on, I hope they succeed, I would love to see someone hand the rat their arse in a basket.

If successful Virgin will grow into a very large full service airline, which I hope they do.

If unsuccessful there will be a rather large pile of money lost by both companies ( Virgin and Skywest ) and many pilots out of work, this is not a new concept.

Was Borghetti involved in the initial B787 order with Qantas?
I wonder if he might have a chance at doing a deal with boeing to grab some of the cancelled order for Virgin....................be bloody nice if he did:ok:

Indeed he was, and so was Colin Storie. However both those good men went on to greener pastures and rightfully so...

Moving of the deck chairs
 

Some more culling, pruning and trimming at Ergonomic Central I see.
Finally, Capt Safety and head of safety himself JY has 'walked the green mile' c/o of some 'internal restructure within safety'!
Any changes to a companies safety structure will have you elevated to the top position on CASA's risk revue group so you better behave kiddies. Also the 'Canadian' has pulled the pin and heading back to the land of the maple leaf. There is also a bit of movement in the lower ranks as well.

Oh you naughty HR dudes, restructuring and 'outing the old' to bring in the new. Although I don't disagree with your choice of redundancy on this occasion I am still concerned that you may have undertaken these changes without exercising flair or frivolity. What would Richard say? Redundancies and sackings at VA when after all 'it's all about choice and keeping the air fair'. What a sad day indeed.

And I must send a big special warm VA greeting to RT! How are you going mate, miss me?? :ok:

C'mon cactus...dont tease us...what deck chairs have been re shuffled? was it the result the troops were hoping for?

There are a couple you've missed cactus. And possibly one more to follow shortly.......

But still no more planes ordered

Won't be any announcements of fleet till at least after the EBA is finalised I would guess.

On another front, interesting reports that the Rat tried to undermine SQ/DJ alliance, which just goes to prove the effect that the deal had.

Also interesting that SQ (or Tomasek) allegedly told them to shove off which either means that someone in this industry has ethics or they didn't want anything to do with a Rat alliance for other reasons.Either way its not a good look for the Rat.

Lets hope that DJ can now ramp up the pressure even more.

What do readers think about the continued involvement of the 777 at VA? I understand that there will be 6 more 330's arriving next year, and eventually they will cover both domestic and international. Also hear that the current 777's spend a lot of the time on the tarmac at SYD...

You can't do the Pacific non-stop in a 330.

The 777's mostly spend a few hours on the ground in Sydney each day so you hear wrong.

Good question. In the short term it hinges around VA's presence on the Pacific. The 777 is far and away the best aircraft for that route, and it is beyond the capability of an A330 so as long as the Pacific stays on VA metal, the 777 is safe in the short term.

Different story once 787's start arriving. If they get the -9's which are capable of flying the pacific non-stop comfortably, the smaller size may be a better fit for Virgin as it has trouble filling the ER's ex Mel and Bne on a daily basis. The 78 would make it easier to go daily from those cities.

AUH also an issue. That is beyond the capability of an A330, so unless Etihad decide to take over all the flights to AUH, then the tripler will be required there also. Again, only until 787's are ordered.

I saw recently on another post a boeing statement that the 777X will make the A350-1000 obsolete, so I am starting to place a greater weighting on the liklihood of 787's over A350's. The only sticking point is that the 777X is not slated for introduction until the end of the decade, but Tim Clark is pushing for 2017. I'd place a small wager Clark will get his way.

Neither of those flights are daily (BNE-LAX 4 x weekly, MEL-LAX 3 x weekly), and I can categorically & factually tell you that at least the BNE-LAX is very very full on a very regular basis.

BNE-LAX is almost impossible to get away on Staff Travel. WE usually leave 10-20 people behind.

For a period, the B777 spent about 36 hours on the grond in Abu Dhabi, but no longer; it is now utilised AUH-KUL-AUH on behalf of Etihad.

VAI made a substancial profit last year, due to the economics of the aircraft and the great load factors.

My point exactly. At present there is not the confidence that they can operate these services daily and maintain the yield with an ER. It would br far less risk with a 787 sized aircraft.

But if you ordered a 787-9 today, when would you recieve it? I think the lead time is something like 5 years at the moment.

A few 787's to VA would most certainly ruffle up the opposition feathers and further stamp JB's mark into the forward-thinking efficient fleet strategy, that's for sure... :}

No, it's purely down to the dynamics of fleet numbers and scheduling...

Okay, let me see if I can explain this.

When V Australia started they ordered 7 triplers with 6 options. Who knows what the grand plan was, but they initially started Daily Syd. Soon after Bne and Melbourne started as the new aircraft arrived. Pretty soon it became clear that daily Mel and Bne was not going to be an option because the loads were crap on the services that were already being operated. Management then looked at other options such as Phuket, Fiji, Jo'burg etc to utilize the 5 aircraft that we had. Those routes were still delivering operating losses.

JB arrived and quickly rationalised, cut the Jo'burg, phuket and fiji and initiated AUH in an attempt to stop the bleeding. At this stage there were still 5 777's in service and two firm 777 orders. Had daily services from Bne or Mel been viable, they would have taken those aircraft and started operating them, but there was not the confidence daily services ex Bne and Mel would be profitable.

The decision was made to defer or cancel those orders (not sure which) and wait to see if yields and passenger loads would improve on existing services. Additionally, domestic was a basket case and as that was the major contributor to bottom line, the management needed to focus on that side of the business rather than waste time on what was believed to be a lost cause (V Australia). All they wanted was for international not to lose too much money.

So yes, the current schedule is a product of the amount of aircraft and fleet dynamics, but that is a result of a management decision to restrict the fleet size to 5 aircraft until they have the confidence to start additional frequencies. That time may well be approaching, but now there are A330's in the mix as well and Virgin does not have a large appetite for rapid growth, so i would suggest that if the Company is looking at deploying the A330's internationally, they will probably get that up and running and evaluate before they take delivery of any more 777's.

The caveat on that is if EY ask Virgin to operate more services to AUH from the East Coast. If that is on the horizon, then more 777's will be required because there is not another aircraft on the planet that will fly from the East Coast of Australia to either LA or AUH as efficiently as a 777-300ER.