Virgin Australia slashes capacity
 

Not surprising at all but seems to be a prudent move in my opinion.

Anyone who has set foot in an airport in the last couple months can see it’s generally a ghost town at most hours of the day and far from sustainable til we get this virus under control.

That has not been my experience since the borders opened….

As well as reduced demand, and February is always terrible anyway, the airlines are struggling to maintain any sort of timesheet integrity due to staffing issues following positive tests and notified close contacts.

Hmm they all look like Bonza routes. Must be soooo lucrative and profitable.

It is all code for, "we are facing problems polishing the turd" before we as a private equity company refloat Virgin on the ASX as the second coming of the Messiah and walk away with the profits...

It’s not just a Virgin thing, the market has softened dramatically for all airlines compared to expectations.
Passengers are reluctant to book because of the high chance of contracting Covid at the moment and the need to cancel plans.
Employers are reluctant to send employees interstate because of Covid fears so business travel is very light ( and the time of year of course)
And of course the airlines are having significant crewing disruptions, therefore only using available crew on higher yield routes not the long thin ones…it’s smart business.

We aren’t out of this crisis yet, I think the southern winter will once again define how 2022 turns out.

With all the Covid delays in getting anything like a "normal" operation running and all the extra $$ they've had to shell out the road to flogging it off and making a profit just keeps getting longer and longer, a profit less and less likely.

Have to wonder whether Bain are starting to consider losing the least amount of cash rather than remaining in this groundhog day of instability and how that could change their application of lipstick to the pig.

Virgin, Qantas, Jetstar are loosing tonnes. I’ve had half my roster cleared due to no crew and even when I’m able to work the loads are thin even on the popular routes to OOL, I have friends OS they’re the same no crews company loosing cash. Seeing Rex jet park up half their jets could be a smart move or a picture to their real pain. Either way aviation is in for an even harder slog in 2022 because one difference being, they can’t use stand downs as a way to save money as borders are open, there is useful work just not much of it. If this slog continues into 2023 which it seems it very well could there could be CR across all to reduce outgoings etc. this is not over by a long shot, maybe we have not even seen the worse yet who knows.

8 new pilot starters at Qf last week. 12 a month ongoing. I think once iso rules are relaxed, it will come back. It has multiple times. Hard for all airlines, this is now becoming a result of government policies (the fool in WA) and the fact Australians have been conditioned to be so scared of everything now. All governments have a lot to answer for. Of course, they never will.

No one is scared of anything except getting sick. The turmoil over the last month, and into the next few is purely because people are actually SICK, therefore disruptions to schedules, travel plans, transport services and supply are all because people are on SICK leave. It has nothing to do with fear, the same would be happening if everyone got flu at the same time. Or are you saying we should all go to work and travel while sick?

In a few months it will settle down and we'll be back to the normal grind worrying about your mortgage, crime and waistline.

Domestic travel in Australia always dies off significantly from January to about June, Virgin has never turned a profit in this half. QF and Rex get through on regular business and commuters, Virgin has always been as with Jetstar heavily discretionary travel, so they make most of their cash from September school holidays to Christmas/New Years.

Not all are sick. In QLD, I reckon the majority of absentees are so because they are residential close contacts, and have to quarantine for 7 days. How actually sick people are once they contract COVID and whether it would impact their ability to do their job ie most people can function perfectly well with the flu, is not even a consideration. You get COVID or are a close contact and can work from home, you're apples. You can't work from home, you and your business might be f*cked.

Had family freinds in QLD, had covid, barely any isolation, travelled by Plane 8 days later no notification, no further tests except the initial tests.. I reckon half the infected population are not even testing and just moving around as usual.

I think we're a looooooong way from any form of normality. East Coast has opened up and there are over 100000 positive on the eastern seaboard, last I checked you can't fly or fly in an aeroplane with covid. I can see the same problem the food suppliers are having (woolworths, Coles etc) morph into the aviation sector. Smooth seas ahead? Yeah, nah

So for the next 9 months Bain are going to have to keep feeding in big $$ as monthly expenses exceed revenue?

Bain must really love the mess they've gotten themselves into - with no stability guaranteed anytime soon and a competitive market to deal with when better times return.

I do love to read this management BS. The fact is VA have so comprehensively mauled the people who physically make the operation work that any skerrick of loyalty left in the workforce has long been withdrawn. Flights are being cancelled because management completely failed to read the room, the tree of desperados they envisaged being able to shake is bare and the rest are sick and tired of being treated like ****.

Tell us what you really think :} - but your'e dead right

Sounds like the old tricks have returned. Or perhaps they never left.

Beautiful. and correct

Sums it up