747's to Hong Kong??

So...BAE146 Virgin Cargo ops are happening and no one on pprune blinks an eye lid. Very disappointed in you lot.

Making cut backs everywhere but throwing big dollars to get this pipe dream up and running. Hope a big customer or two are about to help pay the bills.

Ah FTS I dare say they already have a big customer paying for it otherwise they wouldnt be doing it?!

Remember when Freight was first announced they were pretty adamant they wouldnt be adding dedicated freighters unless the business case stacked up and someone approached them.

What makes you say that it is a pipe dream? Whether it is profitable or not is another matter. VA as a whole is only barely profitable.

One thing is certain. There is money to be made in freight operations.

Where is this talk of 146's coming from?

I should have clarified. The $150 million by mid 2017 pipe dream.

2 X 146's on the way, recruitment under way at the moment.

I assume 200 spare engines coming also but not sure :)

So the old BAE-146 night freighter, that should lure the applicants in.

Quadrapuff time is a must for the CV.

It's not a rumour, applications are now being accepted for captains and FOs on the gas chamber.

Not the April 1 joke I expected.

Where is this this advertised? It's not on the Virgin Careers web site.

It's on the internal one.

Gold,think AN where changing around one per week when the first got them.

A contract of sorts was being shopped around last year regarding Virgin's freight aspirations.
Then this gem is published "Virgin signed a heads of agreement with TNT to finalise a five-year deal to take effect from July".

So lets join the dots, Toll takes the underbelly to QF, underbelly space is fine on the VA fleet. Virgin needs an underwriter, TNT needs an operator.

Next gem.....Feb 5 TNT Express will sell its airline operations to ASL Aviation Group to comply with European Union rules if the Dutch logistics company's sale to larger rival FedEx goes ahead, the company said on Friday

ASL is a 737 operator and does not need the 146's that TNT have had since Ables tried to buy out the production line forever....

So TNT have got 146's parked and a few in service, Virgin has an AOC and a 737 wont get through SYD during curfew.

Now we have joined the dots, the 146's will be donated to the cause, VA will kick off VA Freight with a CNS-BNE-SYD-MEL-ADL cross over a-la the AN Wombat 146's, supported by plenty of underbelly space on the 330's to/from the west.

Good luck with the gas chamber, 5 oil leaks connected by and electrical fault, thankfully its only 4 nights a week......:}

:ok:

There are 2 146F's sitting in a hangar just around from my hangar at Bankstown. Apparently they are being prepped soon for painting into virgin freight colours.

outsource
 

After chopping the E jets and the F50's why would they take on one or two 146 aircraft ? - Cant see it making economic sense to crew , engineer , provision and acquire something that flies 4 nights a week ( or breaks down 4 nights a week ) for an entity like V .
I cant see anyone being able to make a sensible case for it - not forgetting the implication in the half year results that reducing the number of types in the fleet was good for them. Outsource is my bet . Let someone else go broke .

The devil is in the detail. It's entirely possible that JB has stitched up a contract which guarantees a certain amount of income, in which case the economics become much easier.

Think bigger.

Embraer's getting sold more revenue

Fokker 50's removed from service as a result of downturn in mining and loss of RPT. Alliance to buy a few and operate the remainder on VA's behalf with their new partnership

146's to operate freight underwritten by a major player

Just goes to show how bad things have got. If they think they struggled with a 4th Generation airframe like the Embraer how are the engineers going to deal with these old clunkers. Not to mention the well documented oil fumes problems. Engine TBOs around the 5500 hrs and 2300kg/hr as long as there is no icing. Hope they can find a few blacksmiths to deal with the known mainspar corrosion issues as well.

Since when were '747' and 'Virgin' (Australia) in the same sentence?

One could imagine VA A330s going to HK, though...

146 maintenance to be contracted out to a 3rd party. Expect the advertisements to come out very soon ;)