Reminds me of the Velocity deal. $750m of unsecured notes offered at 8% interest. Meanwhile the place was heading for the toilet. Plenty of takers however.

When it comes to PE, $2b of debt today, certainly does not mean $2b of debt tomorrow.

Toss bag I believe you are correct, the only wrinkles in the force as it were, were the new J class seats that, whilst a world class product generated naught in extra revenue but cost a tonne of fuel on the 777 and about 500 kg on the 330 for every sector.

The self proclaimed oracle Massimo mortgaged those aeroplanes for about 100 mill a piece to keep funding his ego driven efforts, which if the administrators had half a brain they could have bought back for about 20 mill a piece and had something to provide a complimentary service on the pacific to their partner United (which is no great shakes - or wasn’t last time I flew on them) and something to run to Haneda instead of a 737.

Virgin was a basket case for about 8 years courtesy of a bloke I still reckon was paid by Qantas to do over their competition, because “JWI” - John wants it - trumped business cases, risk analyses and sheer common sense and he was a vindictive little so and so at the same time.

Qantas needs a viable competitor, if for no other reason than to keep it honest and improving. A monopoly breeds contempt and doesn’t encourage innovation. So a strong virgin is good for both virgin and Qantas.

The 777 operation was world class, and deserved better than what happened to it. Some of the best years of my career were in that machine - so I confess my bias.

I don’t say it is better or worse than QF because I simply don’t know - but it was world class and a fabulous experience that I shall never forget.

The Virgin 777 operation was terrific, having family in the States and making many trips a year you could rely on them. Never, ever had an issue, they were reliable and always a good price.

Mate, it's gone past that, they are a shot duck. If you look at the massive UA expansion over the pacific, it dwarfs qantas. qantas is too busy shafting its staff to notice what just happened. We haven't heard from American or Delta on their pacific plans yet. Delta announced a 5 billion dollar profit but promised better results, this while announcing massive increases in pilot remuneration.

qantas is an embarrassment, where is the fleet growth announcement, pretty much replacing old planes, haven't got the balls to expand, management happy to just line their bloated world class remunerated pockets. Compare the remuneration to airlines 10 times their size. Australia, aviation embarrassment.

But they do have a codeshare with Emirates which allows you to request a special meal.

That is a big capacity dump from United, making another Virgin attempt fairly challenging if they want to make money. If that is the case, then they really don’t need a widebody. Fancy ordering one or two big twins for one random Toyko route? Doubt it. Stick to that 737 model and don’t get distracted.

If VAA go for widebodies the market I would put all my focus into is India.
It is now the largest population in the world, has a huge middle class to grow, 5th largest economy expected to grow to 3rd. A young population, going to be Australia’s largest expat community within next 5yrs.
The IPO was a golden opportunity to tap this market and possibly get Air India involved.
I would have some faith in VAA continuing to be a viable competitor to Qantas if it showed some vision like this.

Wouldn't necessarily call it a dump, they've obviously looked at the deer in headlights, retiring widebodys without any hope of replacing them, fat, dumb and happy. Look at the States and see airline management doing their ******* job, building a business.

You bet the yanks are doing many things right at the moment…. network, fleet and employees. Not perfect, but not terrible either.

Hopefully Delta comes to Melbourne. Since when has anyone relied on the main Australian carrier to transport them around the world? They bait the media for what is a decade about one magic long haul trek to Manhattan. Others just announce these things and get on with it.

/sorry back on topic. Hopefully Virgin back to the states one day.

They can stick to a 737 fleet however that will cause a revolving door of crew. There will be minimal career progression on offer and minimal variety in types of flying. Guys will go to the competitor or head overseas. They have a lot of work to do to retain crew.

Virgin was a case of the employees making it what it was, the staff there were great, unfortunately incompetent imbeciles running it into the ground. I doubt they will ever cross the pacific again, it's a pity but it's too late for them. The US airlines will smash it from here. When I travelled to the states before you know what I would first go to the virgin website, then qantas. Now, it's United first, ANZ second, then looking at going the long way through Asia.

The BNE-SFO increase is funded by the Queensland Government, and is currently subsidised in its x3 weekly form. It's bad enough that the 3x weekly BNE-SFO was inconsistent, yet taxpayers are funding the increase of services to daily.
Source: https://www.dtis.qld.gov.au/news/lat...to-start-daily

BNE-LAX on UA however is somewhat a good move, striking against a weakened QF offering of the A330s, but questions remain whether if that's only seasonal for the Northern Winter/Southern Summer season considering the US3 tends to send most widebodies to Europe during the Northern Summer seasons.

There is Alaska Air with their all-737 fleet pre-Virgin America (VX) involvement.

However they did absorb Horizon Air (an all Embraer operator) into the parent operation whilst slowly phasing out the old V-America Airbuses from the mainline Alaska fleet as those leases expire.

That's all well and good but doing 4 sector days, 4 days in a row on some of the worst pay in the industry isn't going help retain the troops. They've got bigger issues at play that I'm sure any buyer will be well aware of. There is a lot of money that needs to be spent to make VA a real competitor again.

Southwest Airlines with 700+ B737’s only seems to do ok with a single type as does Ryanair.

it’s the company that keeps people not the types

Maybe a new leader will help. I see a certain QF leader is leaving soon so maybe he will be available.:E

Too soon. How good was spaghetti? 🤢

With regard to the former; apocryphal at best. It’s seniority, scope, money and time off. The ‘company’ is long gone. With regard to the latter; it’s British/Euro pilot low wage desperation, combined with fresh meat in the right seat. Daddy’s money pays for cadets. The ‘company’ is as attractive as its advertisement slathered aircraft cabins.

Bread and circuses.

Heard a rumour from a friend of a friends dog……..who heard it from the Townsville refuellers’ dog, that the IPO has been suspended whilst a certain ME carrier was looking into taking a very large share of VA. Please…please…please let’s not have history repeat itself, although last time Spaghetti was signing cheques his bank account\ego couldn’t afford…….

anyone else heard this? Mick, PoppaJo, Sunfish…..anyone…….

Qatar.

That’s the rumour……….