Satellites on Virgin Blue

[Mario Facchini]

hey guys, can you tell me which virgin blue aircraft have the satelite dishes installed?

I took a shot of one on 16L today at about 11.45am, but was in the car and not able to pick up the rego.

[Rhys Xanthis]

almost if not all 737's and 738's have these installed for the Live2Air IFE system.

They are not installed on Virgins E-Jets.

[Nick W]

hey guys, can you tell me which virgin blue aircraft have the satelite dishes installed?

I took a shot of one on 16L today at about 11.45am, but was in the car and not able to pick up the rego.

So everyone can watch foxtel :D

[Mario Facchini]

So everyone can watch foxtel :D

LOL i know that.

i just need the rego of the aircraft for my photo.

[Ian Garton]

Isn't VH-VUO the only one without it now?

[Raymond Rowe]

VUH is not fitted and VBT is also not fitted. VUO as well.

[Marty H]

VH-VUH, VH-VUO, VH-VOX, VH-VBT and VH-VBU are not fitted with Live2air.

[Chris Tully]

I would not expect the E-Jets to be fitted considering the product is a both unreliable and a loss-maker for Virgin.

[Andrew P]

at least the in-flight map is free

Banjo

[Wayne Bee]

I would not expect the E-Jets to be fitted considering the product is a both unreliable and a loss-maker for Virgin.

Chris - Do you have inside information to make a statement like this.

Please back up your comment and put the info here for all to read.

[Nick W]

I really enjoy the Live2Air keeps me entertained i never saw it as a loss maker for Virgin :confused:

[Rhys Xanthis]

I really enjoy the Live2Air keeps me entertained i never saw it as a loss maker for Virgin :confused:

in the short term, maybe, due to the large investment. but i would think charging per person for every flight (almost everyone on the mel-per run i did recently on dj used the system....including me twice:o (bough a movie not realising i'd have to pay rwice for foxtel:mad:) woulod lead to a big gain in finances?

[Andrew P]

in the short term, maybe, due to the large investment. but i would think charging per person for every flight (almost everyone on the mel-per run i did recently on dj used the system....including me twice:o (bough a movie not realising i'd have to pay rwice for foxtel:mad:) woulod lead to a big gain in finances?

I have bene on 11 DJ' flights in the last 3 months, and did not see one person using the pay system

Banjo

[Chris Tully]

Factors that drive down profitability:


Cost to retrofit of aircraft
Ongoing maintenance costs
Increased fuel burn due to additional weight of IFE + incremental drag from antenna
Low uptake by passengers of the product
Unreliability i.e. drop-outs of signal

[Greg F]

Reminds me of when I was sitting next to a guy on the way to Mel from Hba on JQ..

He said 'at least virgin have tv screens not like Jetstar, mind you I wouldn't pay to use it'

I was like oooooooookay......

most flights within Australia are pretty short, so its not like you are bored out of your brains for hours and hours, hence maybe the reson they arent as popular as DJ would like.

My Cousin has also flown DJ and didn't have a Credit card = No IFE for her

[Rhys Xanthis]

well i would expect per-mel/syd/bne to have pretty good utilisation due to the long flight.

[Radi K]

Factors that drive down profitability:


Cost to retrofit of aircraft
Ongoing maintenance costs
Increased fuel burn due to additional weight of IFE + incremental drag from antenna
Low uptake by passengers of the product
Unreliability i.e. drop-outs of signal


Thanks for the economics lesson.

1. Cost is a one off.
2. No ongoing maintenance costs, apart from inspection. Offset by uptake.
3. True, but offset by uptake.
4. Based on what data are you making this assumption?
5. The system is now quite reliable.

When you compare the one off costs and ongoing probability of the program over time, it's obvious that as demand for the product increases (as it has) the product will become a money spinner.

As far as the E-Jets are concerned. The limitation has to do with the Antenna size being too large at the moment for the plane. Work is being done to address this and we may yet see LiveTV on E-Jet services. In the meantime, stored content is being considered from all reports. However with the average duration of an E-Jet sector being less than 1 hour, it’s not a high priority right now.

[Greg F]

When you compare the one off costs and ongoing probability of the program over time, it's obvious that as demand for the product increases (as it has) the product will become a money spinner.



Well I bet Virgin are hoping it is 'going' to be.. they need the cash at the moment... Lets hope things start to look up for DJ soon!

[Andrew M]

I would not expect the E-Jets to be fitted considering the product is a both unreliable and a loss-maker for Virgin.

Based on ?

[Andrew M]

I have bene on 11 DJ' flights in the last 3 months, and did not see one person using the pay system

Banjo

Being only 11 flights in 3 months I assume you don't work for DJ

So apart from the 2 people besides you and perhaps the 3 people in front and also the 3 or 6 people on the opposite side of the plane, how did you know that "not one person" was using the pay system.

Granted you MAY have have walked up and down the plane, but even then you simply can not say "not one person" was using the system.

Also for flights under 1 hour I wouldn't expect many people to use it.

On my recent DJ flights MEL-BNE-MEL and MEL-CNS-MEL I know of a minimum of 20 people on each flight that used the system!

[Adam G]

I fly on DJ services at least once a week and see significent uptake of the system (myself noften included!).

The system now appears to be much more reliable then it was when it was first installed.

[Tom Lohdan]

Does anyone else here see Live2Air as a one off consumer market, following what CBB was doing?

CBB offered 4 channels of TV, but also Internet, and reported cost of $500K per aircraft it was installed on, plus weight.

Boeing, bigger than Virgin looked at it, afew years later pulled out, not worth the money.

Missing CBB I loved being online while flyng for 12 hours! :(

Give me that domestic and maybe a chance, but Foxtel, Phft!

[Andrew M]

I assume you mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connexion_by_Boeing ?

Most new airlines are installing internet.

EG QF on their A380's and Virgin Australia on their 777's

Dunno how its going to work over the Pacific though