5 new Virgin Blue routes
 

Some unusual ones here. Big win for Townsville and Canberra:

I wonder what routes the capacity is being redeployed from?

No way in hell is the Hobart > Canberra going to work!
They often have very low loads on Hobart > Adelaide......

Hobart is a funny place for destinations, but Melbourne and Sydney only seem the places that really work...

Are these new E Jets? Or are they coming from other routes?

Do you think they would start operating a route that they know wont work???

Your also wrong on your HBA to ADL loads also most flights in either direction have less than 10 seats availble on them.


Keep your 'directive' comments in your bag Marty - Mod

Yeah Adelaide maybe for one carrier for one flight a day!
Wait and see if tiger ever do ADL-HBA then it will be interesting

Tiger have already announced ADL-HBA with four weekly flights from March 1.

We'll just wait and see for that to happen, who knows at the moment with all thats happening with the economy

The route is SEASONAL!

HBA-ADL ops 7/365 and is not seasonal.

Doesnt matter if its seasonal or not, you said the loads arent good. I can tell you at present in either direction there is under 10 seats on most flights, it is seasonal for a reason.

I know when JQ were doing the route it was very quiet over the low season and so was DJ
Now with only one carrier it may and apparently has a lot better loads.

Greg is spot on.

Since when does high loads mean its a sustainable route?? Adelaide-Hobart is a frequent visitor to "Happy Hour", Tiger are coming to this route with fares 70% cheaper than Virgin, and Godfrey has stated many times that this route does not make money for Virgin

Cant see VB lasting too much longer here. Tiger will take the crown here, and in return, they will lose money.

Not many routes do from Hobart

AN never made much if any $$ out of Hobart.
And its previously been labeled a loss making port

Don't know about current situation

P.S Lukas thanks.

Ok my father works for JQ @ Hobart, and there was (in the JQ ADL days) loads of like 12 PAX! mind you that was the very early days....

I cant understand why nobody can make 'real' money from Hobart????

I know JQ loads from HBA have been very good for ages now, yet they still insist on cutting costs....

But that's another story, what they are planning for JQ HBA!:mad:

My feeling from a Canberran perspective (am I allowed to have a feeling - I have no stats to back it up ?) is that Canberra - Hobart would have greater demand than Canberra - Townsville. The only connection with Townsville is the strong ADF presence.

Its an interesting Decision a lot of the routes
And I will give it to DJ for giving it a go, its the age old 'you'll never know unless you try it' scenario...
Don't know what specific market HBA-ADL will tap into? Politicians? Tourist? obviously there will be a market for it but, how strong it will be and how it will go financially is anyone guess i suppose..

In my personal opinion it wont work, but lets wait and see ;)

Some flights currently have only 2 seats on them between ADL-HBA and vice versa. That's all I'm saying. Then you dont know what freight is being moved between the two ports either, which if other flights out of HBA are any indication, they would be quite high. But it could be the difference between making money and not making money.

Whilst it's great that DJ are launching HBA-CBR, I hope that they at least stick with it for at least a year. Prior to this announcement, one difference between DJ and JQ at HBA is that when DJ have added new services/destinations to HBA, they have started them sometime between August and November, which gives the new services some time to "mature" and be full by the peak summer season. Compare this with JQ who have tended to add new destinations/services starting sometime between February and May, which gave them just enough time for the numbers to drop off into the trough of the winter season, and then the services get canned before they can make serious money in the peak summer season.

I'm curious as to what the DJ HBA schedules will look like from April. Currently, there is a new schedule in the booking engine that has the last HBA-MEL flight departing at 1620, and the last HBA-SYD flight departing at 1600. Surely there will be later flights than this to both of these destinations! Maybe they are moving to more E-Jets, so HBA-SYD will get 3 E-Jets daily as opposed to 2 737s???

Interesting that the base fare for HBA-CBR will be $175, the same as it is now if you fly HBA-CBR connecting in ADL, MEL or SYD. This is much higher than say the $99 base fare for HBA-SYD, which is a longer route, and has the higher costs of operating into SYD as opposed to CBR. I guess they won't be expecting much corporate business, as it is a middle of the day service. I think an evening departure out of CBR and a first thing return out of HBA would make more money, but that would mean basing another aircraft in HBA, and I guess the aircraft can't be everywhere at once!

As for HBA-ADL, I think the route was a 737 when Godfrey made the comments mentioned, where as it is now a 737/E190 alternate days of the week I think. This can always be reduced to E190/E170 over the quiter winter months in response with demand [An E170 only has half as may seats as a 73G so 50% load on a 73G will make money on an E170). Since the E190 started, the HBA-ADL service departs HBA at 1615 (as opposed to 1115 before), which would receive some business patronage, especially for example from Hydro Tasmania (that has a major base in South Australia).

Finally, with regards to all the regional routes out of TSV, I would have guessed that TSV-DRW and TSV-ISA would be ahead of the four TSV routes that were announced today, but I'm sure DJ have done their homework! I will definitely be supporting DJ on the new HBA-CBR service. :D

I've always had near full or full flights from Hobart to Adelaide and back, one of those flights was on a 738 and there were no empty seats. My first flight with this airline from Hobart to Adelaide was actually on the blue aircraft VH-VBY.

Think routes from Townsville to rest of Queensland would work, things like TSV - CNS is pretty much dominated by QF now, and is operating like 4x Daily.

Instead of Canberra's new services, it would be interesting to see DJ is expanding TSV rather than CNS. CNS is kinda an international port with lots of commutors from around the world transit in CNS to rest of Tropical Queensland.

Wouldn't be better to expand CNS rather than TSV?

I can still see QF's CNS - HTI is still high as $210 direct one way.
I strongly recommend DJ to expand it's BNE - HTI service to CNS, making BNE - HTI & PPP - CNS and sure there might be profitable.

Same to Rockhampton. Hope we can see Cairns - Rockhampton & Cairns - Canberra soon as well.

Good work on DJ, keep going. No Comments of its new CBR service to Hobart, but again, Lord Howe Island needs you.Please use one of your E170s to operate Sydney - Lord Howe Island, thanks.

I don't think Lord Howe has any plans to extend their runway so doubt you will see an E Jet there - not unless they get floaties for the wheels :eek:

Understanably, the Townsville press is happy. Have a look at the article in the link below and the half page route map on the front page. A welcome respite from flood news in the region I'm sure.

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au...75_hpnews.html

As a destination, I personally prefer TSV over CNS. I hope the new routes serve TSV well. With cheaper fares, it may also encourage regional QLD people to travel to TSV for NRL Cowboys games and A-League Fury games. And also for Gold Coast vs North Queensland derbies in both cities for both codes.

Isnt there also the Townsville Crocs NBL team??? I know DJ have the NBL/WNBL contracts.

Yes, there is a Townsville Crocs team in the NBL. I didn't mention it as comparitvely less people would travel for an away NBL game. The football codes are more "tribal" in that respect I suppose. But for the movement of NBL players and officials (and some fans) for the Cairns and Gold Coast games also it would help for sure.

Is the runway long enough?

TSV main rwy is 2438, CNS is 3196.

Very much doubt Lord Howe Island will see any other operators, let alone Virgin Blue. They have a limit as to how many people can stay on the island and only a limited amount of accomodation, so Qantas have the route to themselves pretty much. Not to mention, as Michael said, the fact that the runway is ridiculously short :)

TSV is the "capital" of Nth Qld with Governmental, Defence and other related businesses, so Corp/Business travel would likely show much more promise from TSV than CNS, which is still predominantly leisure.
Whether it's actually the right time to be chasing Corp is another matter.

The Embraers were made for these sort of services, as the carriers in Nth Am that operate them can attest to. Provides "big plane" service/comfort, but with the numbers that make these leaner routes work and work well for the most part.

E-Jet to LHI? Why I Laugh:-)
 

The E-170 will not "fit" into a 785m strip :)

Exactly, Hugh. One of the big questions remains what QLink will do with LHI once the 200 series Dash8's reach their use-by date, as they're really the only 36-ish seat equipment up to the mission.

there really are not a lot of alternatives / replacement proprs in its class out there in the market

atr42-500

dhc-6-400

^ Isn't a DHC-6 a Twin Otter?

If DHC-8 was meant, then the equiv ATR would be the '72'

DHC-6-400 is the new build Twin Otter being built by Viking Air in Canada - but I think it will still only seat 19 people , and I don't know that it would have the range to make it to LHI with any sort of decent payload?

Afternoon all,

Here are the schedules for the 5 new flights.

Canberra - Hobart eff 04APR09
DJ1201 CBR1045 - 1215HBA E70 D
DJ1200 HBA1245 - 1425CBR E70 D

Canberra - Townsville eff 06APR09
DJ1887 CBR0915 - 1200TSV E70 D
DJ1888 TSV0915 - 1200CBR E70 D

Townsville - Coolangatta eff 06APR09
DJ1830 TSV1230 - 1415OOL E70 D
DJ1831 OOL1445 - 1650TSV E70 D

Townsville - Cairns eff 06APR09
DJ1637 TSV0630 - 0725CNS E70 D
DJ1636 CNS0755 - 0845TSV E70 D

Townsville - Rockhamptoneff 06APR09
DJ1906 TSV1730 - 1845ROK E70 D
DJ1905 ROK1915 - 2030TSV E70 D

As a country Queenslander, I am disappointed that Brisbane-Emerald flights didn't get announced by Virgin. (It has long been a rumour!) Most flights on this run on the QF Q400s are either full or cost over $500 for a one-way seat. There ain't much competition out here anymore with Macair gone too!

Damian

New virgin routes
 

I wonder where Virgin will take the next Embraer to?
PER-OOL would be a good opportunity they are the two biggest cities in OZ not yet connected. They tried it with a 737 and stopped it. Maybe it work better with a smaller jet. Does the Embraer have the legs to do PER-OOL non stop. I believe they still got 6 more on order.
When is the next one due?
Where do you reckon they will fly them next to guys?

I don't think the E190 has the legs to do that.

It does have the 'legs' to do that actually.

With all thats happening in the airline world I doubt there will any radical new routes......
And if what Lukas said earlier about HBA-ADL 'possibly' being cancelled I again raise doubts over HBA-CBR......... Maybe it will work with the smaller aircraft.