Virgin Blue ditches NZ Domestic Services & VA Changes

[Ryan K]

From the ABC's website:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/16/2983824.htm?section=justin

[Phillippe M]

Press Release from VB here.

http://www.virginblue.com.au/AboutUs/Media/NewsandPressReleases/P_013219.htm

Also gone is the VAustralia flight to Fiji.

[Mario Facchini]

Johnny B is really looking to take VB places !

But if the NZ domestic arm was bleeding money, it would not have been a hard desicion to make.

[Arthur T]

The exit of Pacific Blue on NZ domestic market makes Air New Zealand and JetStar will be the 2 remaining major competitors in NZ's domestic market.
If this is the case, it seems it could be likely for Virgin Blue to further intregrate and co-operate with Air New Zealand that will enable both companies to eat up more shares on the trans-tasman and intra-NZ market.

Anyways, will Virgin Blue code-share with Air NZ for NZ domestic services? I hope we will see something like this very soon.

[Andrew M]

Slightly off-topic from the NZ ditching, but finally they have pulled the 777 from the Fiji flights.

Why they bothered with that I will never know. A 77W on that route is a big overkill.

Also the SYD-LAX flights finally leaving syd in the mornings/lunch instead of the silly evening departure.

No good getting into LAX at 7/8pm as you won't be getting another domestic flight out of there at that hour.

Sometimes I wonder who "thinks" of these great decisions in the first place.

[Brad Myer]

With DJ replacing the 77Ws with 737s on the SYD-NAN-SYD does this mean it frees up the allowed seats on the route to enable JQ to go daily A320s SYD-NAN-SYD?

[Andrew M]

I am sure you are aware, but having aircraft flying around doesn't mean they are making money. A budget destination such as Fiji doesn't need/warrant a 77W fitted out with a long-haul product.

With yet another schedule change on the SYD-LAX run they are going to annoy another batch of customers as well.

The constant schedule changes, which are now finally for the better, are not a way to keep business customers or even leisure customers happy.

I know personally of around 15 people who had rooms booked nearby LAX as they were expecting to arrive into LAX in the evening, now they are arriving in the morning.

[Sarah C]

The Fiji flights were not going to last. But having the aircraft on the ground in Sydney for over 12 hours made no sense. They were not making money having an aircraft on the ground and Sydney Airport were charging them too.

[Andrew M]

They should have followed Qantas and what every other airline does to the USA.

Let the plane/s sit at LAX for 12 hours

There is a reason Qantas, United, Air NZ & Delta all leave Australia in the morning.

[Andrew M]

Still have no idea why they thought a 77W on a leisure route was a good idea, I think the 77W was designed with more than 3 1/2 flight in mind :) Added to that I thought VA carried no cargo to/from NAN ? Making that decision even more of a failure in the first place.

Yes as I said there is a reason that all other airlines leave in the morning or early afternoon to arrive at LAX/SFO.

Big fail to VA for thinking/planning/actually putting flights that arrive late in the evening in the USA. Leaving no time to catch a connecting flight.

Yet again with more flight changes they are burning yet another chunk of customers.

They still haven't learnt that a consistent flight schedule is key to repeat business.

[James Smith]

Andrew, you'd be interested to know that VA1 from SYD to LAX arrives there at 17:10 at present and earlier in the NW prior to the changes mentioned. The BRI to LAX flight arrives there at 7:00 and the MEL to LAX flight arrives at 16:05. Still time for connections with the later arrivals but they are more limited and who wants two red eye flights on consecutive nights, if continuing east or a very late arrival if connecting on a shorter flight.

We were faced with a very late arrival if connecting from LAX to Calgary from VA1, so we spent the night at one of the local airport hotels and flew out mid morning the next day.

[D Chan]

or there was another reasons for the deployment.

could it be Bruce Buchanan's comment re: the Virgin BLue group using the B777 and the promise of premium services to win capacity on the route?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/jetstar-fills-the-virgin-void-on-nz-routes/story-e6frg8zx-1225906088527

Regarding the QF heavies on the ground at LAX - I think some A checks are done during that time? and also about your point about the scheduling of the flights - V Australia is moving their LAX flight to a morning departure ex-SYD


I recall Rob Fyfe (Air New Zealand CEO) predicting around 2 or 3 months ago that Pacific Blue is going to pull out of NZ domestic services. Seems like he had a pretty good source and that he was right afterall

Andrew M - I suppose they initially considered or focused SYD-LAX as O-D only and didn't have feed/connecting pax in mind?

[Jarden S]

With Pacific blue out of domestic NZ that will free up 2 737s for more international flying MEL-DPS goes daily and as the mentioned SYD-NAN will be daily 737 again there wont be much spare 737 capacity to do any new routes for them.Unless they recieve new ones soon from Boeing. If they free up the 777s from serving fiji they could open more longhaul operations with the spare capacity maybe start a MEL-NRT 3 per week or BNE-JNB 2 a week.

[Stefan Perkas]

Jarden,

All the DPS for ADL, SYD, MEL, BNE and PER flights are operated by Pacific Blues's Australian registered aircraft. VH-VOQ, X, VUF, G, M and N. No NZ reg'd aircraft operate these route. The Aus reg'd ones also do Perth-Phuket, Brisbane- Port Moresby, Wellington (Stand corrected on these destiantions from BNE), and the also do Melbourne-Nadi.

[Stefan Perkas]

Evening all,

Here are the schdules for the new times for the SYD-LAX route.

V Australia from 19OCT10 is adjusting operational schedule on Sydney – Los Angeles route. Sydney departure becomes daytime departure instead of evening, allowing same day connection/arrival into US East Coast.
Schedule below:

VA001 SYD2105 – 1645LAX 77W x3 -18OCT10
VA001 SYD1215 – 0800LAX 77W x3 19OCT10-

VA002 LAX2120 – 0605+2SYD 77W x1
Daily service operating from 20DEC10


Here are the scheds for the Pacific Blue flight to Nadi

From 19OCT10, Pacific Blue is taking over V Australia’s Sydney – Nadi service, which the latter operates 6 weekly with 777-300ER and former once a week with 737-800.
Pacific Blue will operate Daily flight as a result.
Schedule below:

DJ155/VA4155 SYD0810 – 1420NAN 73H D
DJ154/VA4154 NAN1525 – 1815SYD 73H D

Source: Route updates

[Justin L]

With the new daytime SYD departure to LAX for VA, could they potentially offer a US east coast service to say a Delta hub such as JFK or ATL - especially as their aim is to offer same day east coast connections? Would it be a viable alternative to keeping their aircraft on the ground in LAX all day, or are they better off using their US airline partners to offer such a service?

[Jarden S]

Yes it seems a waste to leave the 777 at LAX from 0800 to 2120 every day of the week. What happens with the BNE and MEL flights to LAX do they spend a lot of time on the ground too?

[Brandon Giacomin]

Yes, BNE aircraft sits at LAX from 0700-2355 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so they could fit something in there. But the MEL aircraft arrives at 1805 on Wednesdays and Sundays.

[Jarden S]

It seems crazy to leave half there fleet on the ground at LAX all day. VA will not start to be profitable with their 777 fleet until they make better utilisation of them. With the new CEO JB closing down loss making domestic NZ operations how long will he let VA losses carry on for 6 more months or 12 months? With soon 5 in fleet the 777s have a fairly light flight schedule and can't bring in enough revenue to pay for their operating costs!

[lloyd fox]

Jarden Hi .JB has just stated that VA will be absorbed into VB and will remain operational .Once the other heavies come in FEB 2011(763's or 332's) you may find then some more changes in relation to the 777 utilization .I also understand the long downtime in LAX is for some line maintenance.

[Dale C]

Hi Lloyd,

any idea which way VA/DJ are leaning re 763/330? I understand some new build 763s may be available by Feb 2011, but 330s will have to be leased, and ex EK 332s look to be 1 likely source.
Are they looking at these planes predominately for domestic or regional expansion? If regional, then the 330 would be the more likely choice IMO, but if their main use will be to up capacity on domestic trunk sectors, then I think the 763s could be favourite.
I have also actually heard that 333s could also be considered. From where, I don't know?

Dale.

[lloyd fox]

To be honest i dont know Dale, however JB did work with QF and there were problems turning 332's around quickly at domestic terminals-he would be aware of that .Secondly,i read on another site that he just made a brief trip to the States the week before last, so mayby new 763's .Time will tell i guess.

I believe both domestically and regionally, and yes 330's would be better suited to Asia.

[Jarden S]

Virgin Blue are increasing Perth to Phuket from 2 per week to 3 per week and MEL-DPS goes up to daily.

http://www.travelweekly.com.au/dirplus/images/travelweekly/TravelTodayPDF/16_08_2010.pdf

[Dale C]

Of course DJ have an easy answer if they want to incrementally increase aircraft size on trunk domestic routes................they can order some 739ERs.
These can be converted from existing 738 orders and may be the simplest approach to increasing capacity. Obviously, regional flying would require a plane with significantly more range. I wonder if DJ will enlighten us next week when they celebrate their 10th anniversary?

Dale.

[Andrew M]

Yes it seems a waste to leave the 777 at LAX from 0800 to 2120 every day of the week.

Yet Qantas do this (well very similar hours) every single day with several 747's!

[Skip Fulton]

Yes, LAX is a key B747 maintenance base for QF, and the primary maintenance base for VA.