Virgin Australia ATR's to fly MEL-LST

[Ryan K]

It looks like VA are to replace two of their four daily 737/E90 jet services from MEL to LST with ATR's. A route proving flight operated last week. I'm not 100% sure when this will start.

The VA website shows four daily flights in each direction next March, with two of these taking 60 minutes and the other two taking 85 minutes. Strangely enough, the 85 minute flights show E90's (should be ATR?) and the 60 minute flights 738's.

Perhaps this reduction in seats will pave the way for Tigerair to return to Launceston?

[Yusef D]

VA just did a little ground crew training in Melbourne and Launie with an ATR, so,I'd be surprised if it took another 5 months before services start.

[Ryan K]

Jetstar and Qantaslink have really increased their services to LST over the past year. It must be having an impact on Virgin Australia. Jetstar's early evening SYD-LST service is currently being serviced by an A321 and all MEL-LST Qlink flight have been upgraded to Q400's.

[Rowan McKeever]

It looks as though the change occurs from 17 November.

One MEL/CBR/MEL rotation also goes to ATR by the looks of it - MEL1155-1315CBR1405-1530MEL. Can't see anything for the aircraft will be doing between 1920 and 0805, so perhaps it's resting in MEL that whole time? Or a new service / route? Or, another existing service swaps to ATR but they haven't gotten that far yet?

[Greg Hyde]

VAR latest ATR arrived in Perth yesterday.

[Yusef D]

Maybe a Mildura overnight?

[Ryan K]

Or a new MEL-DPO service?

[Rowan McKeever]

MQL and DPO were among my thoughts. MQL stays the same with a single mid-morning departure from MEL (and too short a block time for an ATR), and DPO isn't in their website's destination list (yet). Also looked at SYD, HBA and an overnighter in CBR, nothing there either. I'm sure all will be revealed!

[Greg Hyde]

What is old is new again.

I flew MEL-DPO on Fokker Friendships several times.

[Rowan McKeever]

The longer sectors seem to have disappeared from the booking screens on VA's website... have they changed their mind, I wonder?

[Ryan K]

I've noticed the same thing Rowan. The MEL-LST flights that were 85 minutes in length have reverted to 60 minutes. Looks like a further delay on the introduction of ATR flights to LST?

[Rowan McKeever]

I looked in my company's corporate travel booking system (which, in my experience, matches what the airlines say on their websites) and same result as looking at VA's website. No ATRs operating out of MEL at least as far through as end-April 2015.

[lloyd fox]

Virgin refuted they were to commence ATR ops ex MEL the week after the ATR was seen in MEL.I read at least 2 articles on that fact.

Virgin stated they would train staff in case ATR aircraft were redeployed there in the future, and then they stated they have no such plans to do so.

[Ryan K]

That still doesn't explain why in VA's booking system two of the four daily MEL-LST flights had been changed to 85 minutes duration. These have both changed back to the normal 60 minute length that the 737-800's and E90's do.

[Dave J]

However it appears the ATR is still scheduled to operate a CBR - MEL - CBR service at some stage!

[Rowan McKeever]

When's that Dave?

[Radi K]

There was plans for the ATR and it did a proving flight but the flights have gone back to E190s for now.

[Dave J]

Starting Monday 10th November VA 262 CBR - MEL is at ATR !! It returns as VA269 from MEL -CBR

[Rowan McKeever]

It's back on. MEL-CBR / MEL-LST with ATRs from next month.

http://australianaviation.com.au/2014/10/virgin-schedules-atr-services-from-melbourne/

[Ryan K]

From what I can gather, VA are dropping all Embraer services from Launceston and settling on three daily 737 MEL-LST flights (Mon-Fri) as well as the current daily SYD-LST 737 service. There does look to be a single ATR flight to compliment the 737 services on the weekend. So perhaps a slight decrease in capacity and certainly a decrease in frequency.

[Dirk L]

I'm surprised they are introducing ATR services to LST just before the peak summer tourist season kicks in, although JQ have eaten up a lot of VA's market share for LST- MEL route lately with JQ offering upto six flights a day all with A320 aircraft compared to VA offering only 4 sun - fri and just 3 on Saturdays. Would be interesting to see if they replace some of the existing 737 flights with more ATRs during the quiet winter season.

BTW I'm Dirk, new member here.

[Ryan K]

Hi Dirk, welcome. :-)

I'm surprised that Virgin aren't replacing one of their daily MEL-LST flights with a Tigerair service. Launceston still doesn't have a Tigerair service which is unusual for an airport that handles nearly 1.3 million passengers per year.

[Justin L]

LST used to have TT service pre-Virgin ownership days. TT would only cater for MEL-LST O&D traffic, whereas VA allows for through connections from MEL to other ports as well - better competing with QF for reach beyond MEL.

[Dirk L]

Back when Tiger was in LST, Virgin was still an considered a 'budget carrier' and had up to 5 LST-MEL flights daily with 737-800 aircraft and had the highest frequencies and seat numbers compared to any other carrier at the time. Things have changed since then.

Now that VA has full ownership of TT, maybe down the track they will re-brand it and make it more like the old Virgin blue style carrier as the name 'Tiger' still leaves a bad taste in peoples mouths.

[JamesL]

When was the last time you flew TT Dirk?

[Ryan K]

Back when Tiger was in LST, Virgin was still an considered a 'budget carrier' and had up to 5 LST-MEL flights daily with 737-800 aircraft and had the highest frequencies and seat numbers compared to any other carrier at the time. Things have changed since then.

Now that VA has full ownership of TT, maybe down the track they will re-brand it and make it more like the old Virgin blue style carrier as the name 'Tiger' still leaves a bad taste in peoples mouths.

I'm surprised that Virgin don't use Tiger by taking on Jetstar in LST. Virgin are dropping to three LST-MEL flights a day, it would be good to see capacity kept the same by making up for the lost VA seats with a daily Tiger service.

[Justin L]

Don't forget JQ also codeshare with QF for international connections so those JQ flights include QF seats for onward international travel from MEL also. Unless TT/VA do something similar Tigerair will likely use their smaller fleet for better utilization on higher yield O&D routes.