Virgin confirm 23 Boeing 737-8 max aircraft ordered
 

JB has confirmed the order of 23 Boeing 737-8 max aircraft.

I guess this means there will be no switch to Airbus in the near future or replacement of the 737 fleet as has been predicted so many times.

Plus more wide-bodies to come?

Virgin Australia defers Boeing 737 deliveries - MarketWatch

So, are we talking significant expansion, moderate expansion, or simply fleet replacement?

Heard somewhere today that Virgin carried more domestic pax than Qantas for the 12 months ending in May..1.42 million compared to QF 1.37 million...Looks like JQ finally become the parent company...:{

Krusty, may be time for you to throw in another application..this time agree to pay the endorsement cost.:ok:

VA's numbers would include it's ATR and E-Jet's whereas Qantas excludes QLink when reporting domestic pax figures I believe?

I believe the ATR flying is reported separately, just like QFlink, so it is a like for like comparison. Someone may correct me though.

Why wouldn't it include ejets? That's like saying Qantas figures include 737's and 767s! Can't help you with the ATR's tho.

was not like for like

from ausbt.com.au

Back to the thread topic?

For me...thank goodness there will remain an avenue to fly Boeing within the domestic scene in Australia!
I felt a great sense of relief that DJ will remain a Boeing flyer, with the possible exception of the Perth legs (which I fly every now and then!), when I look elsewhere for a Boeing on that route.

I have no faith in the Airbus brand at all, and avoid them whenever I can!

Great stuff DJ

EW these Airbuses are quite modern and I can fully understand why some are left behind and prefer the more wood and fabric design of the Boeing.
If only we could get the Electra back. But with the P3s dash 14 powering it of course. Then we would be talking!!!

The Don

EW, at the risk of yet another A vs B argument, I've been flying various models of Airbus since 1995 and have nothing but admiration for Airbus products (and importantly, so do the accountants). This includes ultra long haul and operations in Asian monsoon conditions. I also flew two Boeing types for a decade previously.

With respect, I don't think you know what you're talking about.

What about Atlantic monsoons? :}

ohhhhh Mr Bloggs :}:ok:

Go the Boeing VA

Or I might have to order IO540's 3 at a time!

Capn Bloggs

As has been stated today by the French investigators, the cause the AF accident was pilot error. The fact AF hadn’t at the time upgraded the pitot’s is irrelevant as no aircraft is certified to fly through areas of large super cool water droplets.

I would also like to point out that about five years ago we had a B777 and an A330 on the same day both have a triple ADR failure.

Unbelievable.

Reading the official press release, it would appear an announcement for further A330's is not far away.

Also by not going with the A320/A319 for domestic ops, it leaves the door open for an order of the C-series to replace the Ejet's in the 2015-2017 time frame.

Capn Bloggs

Why is it unbelievable? While I will accept that the situation would have been potentially very confusing with the loss of all air-data information and both stall and over speed warning going off simultaneously, the A330 is like any other aeroplane, Power + Attitude = Performance. The FO’s side stick also rarely left the full aft position with TOGA thrust until impact with the ocean.

... and as a direct result of AIRBUS design principles, nobody else in the cockpit was aware of that little piece of information... :rolleyes:

HF3000

You don’t need to have a control yoke in your hands to know what the other pilot it doing. A simple glance at the other pilot side stick will tell you what they are doing. As for this case, a consistently very high nose attitude and TOGA thrust is major indication of the state of the aircraft that was incredibly missed. If you had 25 degrees + nose up attitude, TOGA thrust and a rate of decent of 10000 ft/min, what would you think the state of the aircraft was? The unfortunate reality is no one on the flight deck realised that the aircraft was in a stalled state until it was too late. This raises serious issues regarding training which needs to be investigated and fixed by regulators because pilot training has, because of cost pressures, been cut to the bone by airline management and this is the end result of it.