VIRGIN fleet review
 

Well it's official all the E170 finally sold off and the beginning of the E190 sell off with the sale of 5 all ready. I hope VIRGIN have jobs for all the displace F50 and E190 Australian Pilots.

As rumour has it they are sponsoring the 457 visa holders.

I am surprised that they are owned and not leased.

I don't know a lot about the E190 or 170's beyond the fact they are supposed to be very comfortable and popular with passengers. But clearly Virgin are not madly in love with them based on their gradual reduction in the number they operate.

Why is that? Is it a fuel burn issue over an alternative type, do they have high operating/maintenance costs or is it simply the routes that they fly on are not economic? Any thoughts?

I think the airlines (well both majors in Australia) are in the processes of reducing the main types in their fleet. Economies of scale and all that type of stuff. I think shortly you might see one type between Virgin and Tiger, and I hear rumblings that Q is going to make an announcement over the next few months about the replacement for the 738 that could ruffle a few short haul feathers!

There seems to be a lot of consolidation going on while the going is good....the low fuel prices won't last forever.

Same Problem

JetBlue CEO Laments Embraer 190 Costs | Commercial Aviation content from Aviation Week

When I was involved with them (back when they were new) the E Jet seemed like a good idea. The first issue was they just didn't have the legs to do east to west coast non stop and even today the only E Jet that comes into PER comes from ADL.

The E170 was taking good loads out of TSV to CNS, ROK, CBR and from memory they went to the Gold Coast as well. For some reason this was all stopped.

I'd say the fleet mix and engineering was an issue which Godfrey didn't see coming. Back then Virgin we're doing some weird things and I think sometimes emotion was driving decisions more than good business.

I'd say that now if they're getting rid of the E Jet it'd be because it makes good business sense.

Logistics of a Multi Type Fleet.
 

One only has to remember back to the AN days when the logistics of operating a multi Type, and widely diversified fleet became both unmanageable in some respects (B767 misguided SB interpretation :=) etc. and subsequently uneconomic within the overall business model.

Ya all keep the faith now, and have a good 2016.:ok:Regards, BE.

Well if the rumours are true one airline is about to make their short haul fleet a hell of a lot more complicated.

So what are the rumours?

Probably that one again about Qantas replacing it's 737s with Jetstar A320s on order...flown by Jetstar Pilots.....on New Zealand contracts...does the rounds every now and then

And the said Jetstar aircraft will be rebranded Q-Link, operated by 'Jetstar'? The J*78's will go to mainline under mainline 787 t&c's and branding? 'Qantas' will become the internation division and 'Qantas Link' the domestic operation? Its just crazy enough to be believable.... very pre 1990's ish too.

Shame to see the Emb190 from the Virgin fleet.

The Brazillian bird is one of the nicest aircraft to ride in as passenger.

Hopefully the crew get absorbed into the B737 fleet.

The mx in Portugal and more recently Van Nuys must have been pretty pricey

Ain't that the truth, always try to book on the E190 if I can.

Did these not be returned to the lessor years ago?

No Skystar, they were subleased to Delta, operated by Compass, a Delta Connection carrier. Probably a mates' deal, they don't operate other 170s, just a whole lot of (similar) 175s.

I'll throw this one down......Replacing the 170/190 with Bombardier C series. Macquarie Bank have 40 C300 on order, due to be delivered 2017.

If what I've heard is true, it's a Borghetti master stroke. The aircraft is a curfew buster with Geared turbofans, capable of doing SYD-PER.

empire4, I'd love to believe you're on to something but it's been a while since I suspected any of VA's brass of having that kind of vision.

40 in 2017, wow they'd better start training soon! The 6x170's and 18x 190's seemed like they took forever when they were training crew.

Where did you hear this left field rumour?

Syd-per, they could replace the 'mothership'!

If VA what a curfew buster they would go with the Embraer E2 (the new E-jet). It had the PW geared fan, but it is also a common endorsement with the E-jet.

What do QF do with their 100 seater flying? They sub-contract it out. Maybe VA are looking to do the same. Why would you retire a fleet without announcing a replacement?

Spot on Falling Leaf. The question is, do they use VARA or Alliance F100s?

On another note, what was the comment earlier about 40 of something by 2017? It seems to have been removed.

Network want 50 extra pilots before the end of the year.

Alliance cleaned Austrian Airlines out of their F100 fleet not long ago...

Don't be surprised to see Network expanding.

I read an asx statement today saying just that regarding Alliance.

I think the aim here is to have one common narrow body type and also one wide body type in the group hence the new EBA proposals.
Strong rumours also that Tiger are considering a swap to an all 737 fleet.
Or maybe VA will just become a real virtual airline soon.
Time will tell I suppose.

Loads are already good on existing routes with the existing fleet. Why change them?

Did you not see that Tiger actually made a half year profit the other day?

morno

Game Changer?
 

From a couple of days ago:

Valentines day between Alliance and Virgin:

http://m.smh.com.au/business/aviatio...14-gmu24l.html

Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

Need a fair bit of cash to buy Alliance!

Alliance's Market Cap is only $60m.

About the same as a brand new B737. Pretty sure Virgin could afford to buy them if they wanted to!

Virgin has done a big freight deal with TNT.
VARA to operate ex-TNT Europe 146 freighters.

As far as curfew-busters go, remember that it's not just the aircraft's noise footprint to consider. Landing must be 34L and departure must be 16R.
There are plenty of occasions when the wind would preclude one or the other.
How does an airline schedule flights under those restictions?
Sydney's curfew restrictions should allow an operation to depart 34L or land 16R if the downwind to operate under curfew runway use requirements is prohibitive.
Only Medivac flights have that luxury currently.

Link? ................

I hope that was just a tongue in cheek piss take.

1/2 Empty 73 MAX is way to go
 

Just refueled a V aircraft & heard that Gary Pork was happier to fly around 1/2 empty 738 MAXs ( when they get here ) then have 87% load factored E-Jets flying around :bored:

Meanwhile, John Spaghetti & Co seem happy to loose over $220 000 a week on his A332 operation :confused:

We can only say: its the greater minds at work here chaps :\

Well V management, get those shovels & wheelbarrows out again this week & flush those good dollars down the toilet with pride :ugh:

They seem pretty narrow minded on keeping the A330 on Perth and Perth only. I mean, it does the odd Fiji run on weekends but that's because there's sitting around doing nothing, on a Saturday the whole Airbus fleet barely moves. They seem to spend a lot of time parked, expensive machine to have sitting around.

My prediction is that the E-Jet is going as part of a strategy to have VARA do all 'regional' flying, as their name suggests. That includes 100 seater aircraft. Using the 737 to fly 100 seater routes is just a stop gap while they set up Alliance F100's in the East Coast to do what the Skywest F100's are already doing on the West Coast; replace the E-Jet flying.

So by 2020+ maybe Virgin will look like this…

Wide-body: B787 (A330 and B777 gone)
Narrow-body: B737 NG & MAX
VARA: ATR and F100
Tiger: B737NG

The only caveat to this prediction is if they follow the QF playbook, the 787 and MAX's could go to Tiger first….after all, the LCC needs the most fuel efficient aircraft.

Not the case with the Tiger painted 737's, they are the old fuel guzzling, non acars machines, not the nice new SFP ones. Apparently they were chosen because they are the cheapest lease wise.

God helps us if the F100 is still around post 2020. It's an embarrassment that airlines in Australia are currently falling over themselves to get their hands on 20 year old airframes handed down from operators all over the world, including some 3rd world countries.

But they're.....CHEAP! :yuk: