Few Questions about Virgin Blue in the early days...

[Jack B]

What was the old SYD temporary teminal like? I assume, from driving past, very small! and how did using the MEL international terminal work?

From an onboard perspective on the 737-400's, how different was it to Virgin Blue flying today? Same sort of drink/snack service, uniforms, announcements etc? I believe they had 5 Cabin Crew as opposed to the current 4, or perhaps 5 was on the early -800s?

Thanks for any replies! I didn't fly with Virgin till 2005, when it was very well established.

[Robert Zweck]

Back in 2000, their original Adelaide terminal was a tent attached to the ITB

[Nick Te Mata]

Jack, if you search for "Domestic Express" there was a thread not long ago with some 'fond' recollections of the original DJ terminal here in Sydney.

The service model in the early part of the decade was fundamentally the same, a basic buy on board service offering snacks and drinks, given that DJ's early routes were all based along the eastern seaboard ex-BNE, to SYD and MEL, ADL following soon after. By 2001 a much more extensive network had sprung up, the bulk of routes operating ex-BNE. West Coast expansion followed from ADL and MEL, building upon their focus on low yield markets that included CNS, MKY, TSV, LST, DRW. If I recall correctly, DJ operated into Mt. Isa for a while also. Of course, Live2Air didn't come until circa 2007.

Onboard, the fleet was primarily ex-Virgin Express (Belgium) so there was an interesting mix of seating and configurations. First aircraft were -300s and -400s, with a couple of -800s following around the time AN Mk1 collapsed. Some aircraft carried Cityrail-esque green seating with brown trim, before standardisation came in about 2005 with the seats you see today.This period also netted an ex-AN 733 painted in a reverse white scheme which retained the AN interior. I think it may have been VH-CZQ.

[Harry G]

The Melbourne terminal is what Tiger is using today and more often than not referred to as a "shed" which some 9 years ago would have either been a little better or a little worse than today - away from the main terminal near the freight bays......
believe they went into T3 as it is known now when AN went belly up

[Peter Agatsiotis]

Nick is correct with the ex Ansett 737.

Photo attached

[Mario Facchini]

What happened to VH - CZO?

[Geoff W]

According to website below:

http://www.aussieairliners.org/b-737/vh-czo3/vhczo.html

Kind regards.

Geoff

[Mario Facchini]

unless i have missed it, has that blurb has missed the section when it was a VB jet ??

[Nathan Long]

The Virgin Blue jet was VH-CZQ, as stated by Nick.

[Mario Facchini]

here is the link for VH-CZQ

http://www.aussieairliners.org/b-737/vh-czq3/vhczq.html

According to Airfleets.net it was leased to Aerosvit in 2004 and is currently in storage as of April 09

http://www.airliners.net/photo/AeroSvit-Ukrainian-Airlines/Boeing-737-33A/1744805/M/