As to your dismissive, condescending, smug post about my inability to find a comfortable spot on the ATR I say Virgin should be worried.

They are the people offering a commercial package against the incumbents and if Virgin look at the size of passengers embarking on the frames you will no doubt note that quite a few are a bit outside the ICAO 77KG 4 FOOT tall cookie cutter pop out that the ATR72 - 500 seems designed for.

Last Thursday I travelled the SYD - CBR route I caught the Dash 8 to SYD then caught the Coach back, whilst twice as long time wise it had more room and cost my employer 15% of a turboprop ticket.

Cant get comfortable in Business you silly Billy? two weeks ago I flew back from Indonesia in Business and the space, comfort level was incredible.

Now where's that high speed rail everyone keeps talking about?

Re the difference between the ATR and Q400, I don't find much comfort difference as pax. The 400 feels like a much bigger aeroplane than the ATR for some reason, which is nice. No economy class seat is going to be super comfortable for long so the speed of the Q400 helps out with that.

I think the operator sees even more benefit from the higher speed than the punters. Shaving 10-20 min off every sector compared to the ATR adds up to a lot of extra utilisation per airframe day. The APU on the Dash seems to help with quicker turn around times too.

As SLF, jumped for joy when Q entered the WA market, I am a twice -fortnightly flyer Per-GET. Couldn't get off the Skywest F50 quick enough. Cut at least 15 minutes off a short sector, new aircraft, comfort levels quite acceptable, and, of course, murdered the old F50 in all aspects .Then put up with 5 months of absolutely appalling on-time performance. Initial thoughts were----new operation, give it some time to bed in. But it went on and on; I can dismiss the "Perth Airport factors" as not their fault, but, when you only have two of type in the state, both flying, and one goes down, you are in the s**t.
So I am back on Skywest, and guess what? I can do the same route, for the same price on an F100, even quicker, and more comfortably. So, curently, all my airmiles are on F100's--apart from the one airframe with rock-hard seats(can never remeber the rego) , comfortable flying with plenty of legroom. Do the Alliance F100's have the same seat pitch as Skywest's ?

Virgin should be cleaning up!?
Ticket prices outbound from Brisbane
$210 with bags, or you can save a whole $2, and pay $198 without checked bags on the ATR
or
$340 "flexi saver" or you could choose to pay $717 for a fully flexible fare on the dash.
I was able to find a "red e deal" on the dash of $102 but that is for Emerald to Brisbane at 3pm on Sunday the 13th May.
(for the nit pickers-prices were listed on webjet Saturday the 5th, for travel Sunday 6th/13th May)


The rumour I've heard is that Virgin isn't able/willing to send the E-jet to Emerald-somthing to do with the bump/slope of the runway?.. any one know the facts there??..

On a side note, does anyone know if Virgin are considering operations to Moranbah?? A big new terminal is due to open there June/July, currently dash 8 fares are consistent around $700 one way...

Are the 72-600s online yet? Anyone been for a fly on one? I understand that there is a significant effort to improve feel and comfort.

Interesting comment about APUs, I thought the hotel mode setup would be faster?

There's a bump/slope at Emerald?

The bump/slope at Hervey Bay hasn't stopped the Ejet and the 737 from operating there.

Runway 06 slopes down hill to the 24 threshold from about halfway along the runway. In fact sitting on the 06 threshold, you can't see much past the windsock-let alone the opposite ends' threshold.

I wouldn't have thought it would be a problem either, just asking as I was told it was a reason the E-jet wasn't there (yet)?

Moranbah is a closed shop, BMA own and operate it. They contractually only allow QFLINK to operate......

noclue
Moranbah runway is apparently owned by the mining company. Yes, bigger ramp and bigger terminal but, NO talk as yet to make it open to anyone else or bigger for jets. It's making so much BIG MONEY for Qantas I could only imagine that over that business lunch at that 5 star restaurant Qantas has given enough "incentives" to keep the runway for themselves.

DC9, F100......it is probably time you tried something from the current millennium...

I suspect that they are trying to stretch the life of the F100's until the "C" series become available. The "C" series looks the most obvious aircraft to fill this role with significantly lower DOCs than current technology aircraft. The biggest "unknown" is how they will handle some of the more austere strips that the Fokkers have always excelled at.

C series being sold at 58 to 70 million each better have very good performance. The difference in acquisition cost buys a hell of a lot of fuel.

Difference between ATR and a Dash 8? For me,as a passenger in NZ - I fly a route from Dunedin via CHC to Nelson that sees me changing from an ATR to a Dash 8 Q300. So I do see the difference. The seats feel about the same - it is the ankle room. The Dash 8 fuselage curves in at ankle level, so the person in the window seat will notice that. The ATR sidewall goes straight down. (This would be whether you are in a Q300 or Q400.)

On NZ routes, the Q300 and the ATR have the same time shown in the timetable. Some routes north of CHC to Hamilton or Tauranga, or Dunedin to Wellington would have a small advantage if Q400s were used.

Would be nice to have some Alliance Fokker 100s in NZ.

If you are going to have low utilisation planes, surely Fokker 100s are ideal. How many hours a month would you use a C series, to get your money back.

If the people in Europe who want to do a NG Fokker 100 with new engines - that might be an interesting plane. Or just stick the new engines on existing frames.

YES....Good morning ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking.
Thankyou for flying with us on this Alliance F100 jet operated for Qantas woops I mean Virgin Australia flight....He He

I totally agree, Fred, but fuel isn't the only cost . As aircraft age, each successive Heavy maintenance check gets more expensive until eventually it's cheaper to purchase new aircraft.

The Fokker is such a perfect niche aircraft that is very hard to replace with newer fuel efficient aircraft.

Imagine 3 F100's sitting on the tarmac in Emerald one being a FIFO charter of alliances own and the other two being RPT for virgin and qantas.

You mean 2 parked on the Tarmac, the third holding on the runway waiting for a parking spot, meanwhile toll express is inbound from thangool :ugh:

Will the F100 fit on both bays at the same time with enough room to taxi behind?