VA is pulling out of SYD-HKG
 

SYD-HKG flights end on March 2 as VA "withdraws (its) services between Australia and Hong Kong".

https://www.executivetraveller.com/n...g-kong-flights

Back to boring old PER runs for the techies. Pretty easy gig.

up to 5 330’s on transcontinental runs...when do the leases expire? Pretty easy gig for the accountants.

I bet VA is hoping soon. There’s no need for them to dump capacity on the domestic market, last they tried it it almost sent the company broke.

Their best option is probably to park them until the Coronavirus panic is over.

Unless they are heading to NAN or HND

Or at least something a bit more clever than one of the most competitive markets in Australia - SYD/MEL-HKG...

The planned daily service to HND starting late March will utilise most of the capacity.

Here’s an idea. Drop another one or two of these big girls on transcon to offload some 737s to that airline that is undergoing the worlds longest fleet conversion.

Put two A330 in TT colours, and operate them SYD-TPE-MEL / MEL-TPE-SYD on VA AOC. Set up a codeshare and interline with Tigerair Taiwan for networks at both ends. Its out there I admit. Compete with Air Asia etc.

That's what I don't understand. I would expect that Japan would be supplemented crew ops as well?

Hong Kong finishes on 2nd March and Japan starts on 29th March. Talk of redundancies, LWOP etc. seems dramatic.

Not a lot of movement in the company onto the fleet the last 12 months anyway.

Good excuse to pull out of Hong Kong anyway?

"Never let a good crisis go to waste" - Winston Churchill

Will it ?

Japan, Korea, and Singapore have more confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV than HKG.

Wouldn’t be surprised Australia had more cases than HKG in a week.

^ this...!

Here we go. Another fleet change for Tiger! :}:ouch::hmm:

Japan is second in the medal tally.

Well after they announced several months ago that MEL HKG was going to get the flick - there was going to be a surplus of crew until BNE HND kicked off.

Now with SYD HKG also being canned there is an immediate surplus issue in March that won’t be sorted now once the BNE HND flying starts.

Now if there is a sudden influx of 330s on transcon - where do those 737s (and more importantly the pilots) go?

None of this then takes into account a drop in domestic demand which surely has to be happening given the travel restrictions on the Chinese tourist.

Interesting (and tough) times for VA ahead....

Could be a ‘perfect storm’ for VA. All you need is a war with Iran or for the Tangerine Anus to start some shenanigans with some other oil producing country in the Middle East and you have potential oil problems by way of availability and price. And naturally Australia only keeps around 3 weeks worth of aviation fuel on hand. You just continue enjoying wiping up the many years of Godfrey/Borghetti mess Mr Scurrah. You have lots of surplus ‘specialists’ around you to help you clean up the mess.....or perhaps not.

Fortunately, Virgin has never made a pilot redundant whenever there has been fleet oversupply, which has happened multiple times in the last 20 years for various reasons. They, with the help of the pilots have managed oversupply. Something they can be very proud of. I would think that will be the same now. Once the “flu stops” and the industry stabilises, another Route can easily be found and then suddenly they are short again.

thats not true. A load of ex mil blokes got laid off around 08-09 and came back in. I remember it well.

Hmmm...there was a post here last night with a screenshot of internal comms that the poster presumably subsequently decided was better kept internal.

It stated that from 1 Mar VA would have a surplus on the widebody fleet that they were looking to manage with leave but, if unable to do so, they would be forcing pilots to take unpaid leave as it was a ‘catastrophic’ event beyond their control.

It went on to state that both the FWA and their EA gave them the ability to do so, but by including it in the EA at least they were required to discuss matters with the AFAP.

Yeh, that should work well considering the absolute cockup that was the DPS operation...