VB/PB livery rebranding starts.
 

Hi there

According to info from another forum, Virgin Blue have commenced rebranding of their aircraft.

VUY gets AFL decals on the 21st, VUM is back out and about and still has Pacific Blue on the horizontal stabiliser but Pacific Blue on the fuse is gone and has been replaced by 'Airline Of Virgin Blue' on the forward fuse around the front hold door area in large letters, and pretty sure VUF will end up the same around the 25th of Jan.

Cheers
Anthony T

Pics anyone??

Seems more like they are de-branding their aircraft rather than re-branding. With the rebranding to come later.

from available info I have at the moment (and i could be wrong so dont blame the messenger!)

it appears the unveiling of the AFL livery (VUY) will occur in Melbourne.. possibly it rolling out of the JHAS hangars.. on Friday.. unsure of time etc

VH-VBI And VH-VBN
 

VH-VBI and VH-VBN have been re-painted, the "virgin" girl has been taken off with the name eg. smurfette, and the virgin on the tail looks different. I would say this will be part of the re-branding. Heres a picture of VH-VBN

http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=7024154&nseq=5

Cheers.

VH-VUM without titles.

VUY goes into the hangar in Melbourne at the JHAS hangar tomorrow night (Thursday 20th) for AFL decals & will return to service on Tuesday 25th

Last service will be MEL-SYD-MEL DJ885/894 tomorrow night.

With all the rebranding going on one can only hope that all the ZK registered machines will be bought back to the aussie register.

VUM is from DPS this morning with the new titles. Seems pointless theyd go to the trouble of putting these titles on them when itl be in the hanger within the next 6 months or so getting the new livery.

Nice shot Tim!

It's gonna be interesting seeing all these 'hybrid' liveries for a little while :)

What will happen to their Polynesian Blue aircraft?

Thanks Shayne,

I assume the Poly -800 along the line will be converted alongside the Pac Blue -800's all back to their Aussie regos, e.g. ZK-PBK will go to VH-VUP. Of course when DJ, Poly, Pac and V Aus are all under one name. Then again QF have the 'Jet Connet' set up with all the Kiwi -800's so who knows.

Thats the exciting part not knowing I guess!

Ther is only 1 painted Polynesian Blue aircraft so i would say the same fate as the pacific blue planes.

Cheers.

I thought I have read somewhere that there is an advantage in having aircraft ZK registered - lesser crew numbers or something???

Also the registration fees will be lower in NZ.

With all the rebranding there is no real reason to keep them on the NZ register.Do not fly domestic routes,And they are basically on used to fly to Australia.Might as well put them back on the Vh register and put them back in the main pool.

Ray, that thinking was part of the reason Ansett collapsed.

Save money when and where you can, when it does not dilute or damage the product/brand.

Torin, what are you reading from Ray's post that I'm not? What does bringing the NZ registered aircraft back onto the Aus register got to do with diluting brand image and what does it have to do with Ansett?

What I think Torin means is that if keeping them ZK registered saves money then this is good for the Virgin Blue company. Torin is implying that if Ansett exec's had kept a better watch on costs (a lot of little things eventually add up over time!) they may not have found themselves in such dire predicament.

In terms of diluting brand image, I think Torin is NOT saying that having them ZK/VH registered will effect brand image. What Torin IS saying is that where you have small things like this, that $$ can be saved WITHOUT damaging image, then VB seek out the lesser cost option.

Just to add to all the airlines mentioned and comments re ANZ/Ansett, on the ABC news last night there was a caption stating that ANZ have purchased 15% of Virgin Blue shares!!!!!

ANZ shares in DJ is already on another thread, apologies.

Pacific Blue aircraft
 

I was just thinking, because pacific blue is finishing up on its domestic nz routes in febuary this year or whatever, John's plan might be to put some of ex. vb aircraft back on the aussie register and get those vh registed vb planes in pacific blue colours back to virgin blue livery.

Wonder how vh-vuy is today if she is in service after yesterdays paint :D

Also VH-VUZ is on her way shortly and the 105 new 737NG's will start to be dilivered from july so the fleet is getting big :)

Cheers.

Saw her in there this morning :)

Will Virgin Blue will give the new livery to every single Boeing 737 in their fleet, given that some leased ones will be replaced by the newer 737NGs in July? Because the whole livery rollout will definitely take time.

@ Jack Melon

Pacific Blue Domestic services within New Zealand actually finished in October last year .

I don't think that there would be much of a hurry to repaint those aircraft into Virgin Blue livery if the Virgin Blue livery itself is due to disappear with the re-branding .

VOA ends its lease with Virgin Blue tomorrow (23rd Jan) & VOC ends its lease on 13th March. VUF & VUN terminate Pacific Blue Ops over the next 2 weeks with both of them to get a Pac Blue paint out & decal installations.

Do you have any idea when vh-vbu leaves the fleet? She is very different and i dont like her, no leather seats and no live2'air.

So VH-VBA, VH-VBB, VH-VBC, VH-VBD, VH-VBH, VH-VBI, VH-VBJ VH-VBK, VH-VBL, VH-VBY and VH-VBZ out of the -700's will stay for a while?
And the 737-8FEs will keep in the fleet?
But of course the new leased ones 737-8KG or whatever will stay for a long time.

VOA departed at 0800 from MEL, on its way to Subang, Malaysia. Must be pushing the limits of a 737's range!

annnnnnddddd it's back again in MEL with a minor engineering issue :D

Mr Borghetti will outline a name change, thought to be Virgin Australia, which will bring Virgin Blue, V Australia and Pacific Blue under one brand.
He is also looking for more planes, with analysts suggesting that either 300-seat A330s or 260-seat 767s may be leased for quick delivery ahead of a possible order for 290-seat 787s.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/worl...ss-change-name

I reckon virgin should get the 737-900ER, to go head to head with JQ's A321's and on the busy MEL-SYD-BNE Routes. Make there 737-800's go head to head with there A320's and there 737-700's go head to head with qf' 737-800 and 737-400 routes. There is hope virgin will get the 25 options configured into more 737-700's or the 737-900ER. I think virgin are going to get rid of the -700's all together?

That is very old news Sean as the link you posted is dated 21 June 2010.

Virgin Blue announced in August that it will lease two former Emirates A330s. The first, VH-XFA (formerly A6-EAB) was noted in an all white scheme in Dubai last week. Both should be in service by May 2011 with another two expected early in 2012.

Thanks for that Bob sorry missed the date under the header - My bad.

VUY will operate its first revenue flight with AFL decals tomorrow morning to ADL at 0705. It will be in and out of ADL and OOL all day

Will it be making any trips to Canberra over the next few days (before Thursday) and where will it be on Thursday?

anyone know if or when today its coming out of the hanger. Really want a shot.

Lukas,
It's out of the hangar tomorrow, operating MEL-ADL-OOL-ADL-MEL

There is a photo of it on the Virgin Blue Facebook page.

Pic from VB Facebook page

Snapped it last night while it was in obviously an unfinshed state.