Virgin Fleet plans
 

Update this morning on Virgins fleet plans as part of their profit announcement:

737s 4 to be delivered, three lease returns
Tiger +1 A320
Emb 190s Five to be sold
F50's x 8 to leave fleet

IIRC only the E190s are news, and still no fleet changes for international re more aircraft and A330s on Fiji during peak.

Any updated news on the Fokker 100's?

As part of the 8 F50's retiring, VAR were to add 1 x A320 and 4 x F100. 2 F100's had already arrived (FWH & FWI).

The withdrawing E190's are a shock and sound crazy, as one would have expected more purchased down the track to replace F100's.

Shame about the 190s. Easily one of the more comfortable aircraft around.

No mention of more F100s or the A320, suspect it's on ice due to the downturn in the mining sector.

I wonder, Virgin getting rid of 5 E.190's and Air North getting up to 5 E.190's. NO, of course it is just pure speculation????????

How did I not put that together yesterday!!! Although the rumoured 5x E90 for TL are also rumoured to be for QLink ops... who knows! :P

Wouldn't be surprised if they go to Air North, Bristow currently use one with Cobham ex Perth and although the contract with Cobham was extended, it's possible they will move it since they acquired Air North, using the other aircraft in place of the BAE146 ops.

I'm curious as to where you got that information?

I don't believe there are any further aircraft coming for Tigerair apart from the 737's for international ops.

Mick

Sad to lose some 190's, they are infinitely more comfortable to fly on than a 737/A320 - I would happily change my schedule or pay a bit more to go on one, which I think is something Virgin realised because they usually seem to be $20-30 pricier on routes that have a mix of 737's.

It's from the investor preso and covers FY16, in this case an already delivered aircraft, as is the case with some of the 738s.

I didn't mind Airnorth's first E170 (VH-ANO) and VirginBlue (before it became VA) felt a little tighter in the leg room department. No E190 aircraft operate near by (both Albury and Canberra are operated by ATR 72 [another aircraft I've yet to fly on]), so can't comment on them. :/

There will be some additional DOMESTIC flying for the Tigerair painted 737s.

Today's announcement about a VA and Alliance partnership provides some interesting options on VA's future fleet as well, especially as Alliance are taking delivery of all those F70s/100s ex Austrian (does anyone know how many?)

Any clues as to what that might be, Yusef? Just operating on the existing domestic network alongside the A320s or do they have something else planned?

21 F70/100s from Austrian,

Also last week Alliance announced that it had won a new Santos contract


This may give then fleet flexibility if they need to use something bigger then a F100

Win, Win all round

Without wanting to take this off topic, but just a quick question which has also been raised elsewhere... does anyone know if the new Alliance / Santos contract means Cobham will cease operating Adelaide-Moomba?

Adelaide's Advertiser newspaper reports that Cobham will cease flying FIFO services on the Adelaide-Moomba route after February 29, 2016.

So... what was "Today's announcement about a VA and Alliance partnership"???

Future charter signings will be a joint venture.

http://australianaviation.com.au/201...-fifo-charter/

Strategic partnership for charter ops... basically that each airline will continue to operate its existing charter contracts in its own right but they will work together on future contracts.

Which means, if it is too big for Alliance, VAR will pick it up with A320,B737 or visa-versa with Alliance F50/70/100.

I wonder if Alliance F70/F100 will replace some of the E-Jet which are going to be withdrawn ?

Interesting.

I don't see Alliance operating VA's EJets. A second operator is a reduction in efficiency. Not that that stops VA these days. Scotty Mac's appreciation for the Fokkers stops not far short of fetishism.

Interesting to see if the ACCC approves. It is literally reducing competition in the markets where these two companies operate.

The ejets are going as VA have surplus capacity, so no need to replace them. While that may change in the future, I doubt you will see much placement of Fokker's on RPT routes, the equipment is not up to spec, ie no gate to gate IFE or streaming, limit galley etc.

I would be surprised if Tiger fly these domestically. They haven't added much since the latest A320 came on last year, probably only half of it is being used. Also, they could work their other aircraft more.

It would be costly to introduce the 737 for them wouldn't it?

Or maybe Yusef heard this from somewhere and it is actually going to happen?

Regarding the announcements on 737 and A320 changes above, they are changes that have already happened in the last few months

They've gotta do something with them... the proposed schedule for MEL/ADL/PER to DPS only requires 2 airframes. I know they have to cover maintenance, but not like that...

It will be interesting to see but I would bet that they'll just leave them sitting around half of the time.

I count it as about 1.4 airframes, not including maint downtime. expect MEL-ADL flights on TT 738s with wifi IFE, and others on a schedule recovery basis.

Yeah something around 1.4... I wasn't being very exact, more saying the 3rd aircraft is somewhat more of a spare wheel! I agree there must be something more cost-effective for them than simply segregating the 737s onto international.

Agreed, Rowan. I hope there's a big picture here but I doubt it.

TT 737 IFE:
https://www.runwaygirlnetwork.com/20...x-va-aircraft/

VA has just registered another new 737-800 VH-YFW.

Looks like the fleet plans a few threads back are correct - and this is one of a further four new 738's to be delivered.

I think you will find that there is another new A320 on order for TT if investigated further.

VH-YFW B737-8FE for VA added to the register on 18/02/2016

Hi Steve,

I posted this to http://yssyforum.net/board/showthread.php?t=10918

maybe we need a new reg thread

4 738s in, 3 out I hear

Steve,
Where abouts is the info on another 320 order for TT?

VH-VPD was operating VA9949, a position flight to KWCF on Wednesday 24 February 2016.

Could this be the first aircraft undergoing the refit?

Yes

ZPD and ZPG (e190) have both left Australia and are not returning.

Thanks Steve, I'm surprised they registered another B738 considering they said 4 new in FY16 and we already saw those 4 arrve in H1.

Regarding TT A320, they said 14th A320 in H1 which we have seen but no mention of a 15th A320. Does anyone know if they are getting another one soon? If they do we could see some new routes from them!