Satellites on Virgin Blue

[Nick W]

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

[Rhys Xanthis]

Originally Posted by Nick W

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

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 (bough a movie not realising i'd have to pay rwice for foxtel) woulod lead to a big gain in finances?

[Andrew P]

Originally Posted by Rhys Xanthis

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 (bough a movie not realising i'd have to pay rwice for foxtel) 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]

Originally Posted by 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

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]

Originally Posted by Radi K

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

Based on ?

[Andrew M]

Originally Posted by Andrew P

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!