Virgin Fleet plans

[MarkR]

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.

[Steve S... 2]

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.

[Greg McDonald]

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

[oliver c]

Originally Posted by Greg McDonald

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

Sad news about the E190, They were a nice aircraft and I will miss them from the Virgin Australia fleet!

[MarkR]

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

[Greg Hyde]

Virgin Australia to remove five Embraer E190s from fleet, reaffirms guidance for full year profit

Virgin Australia says it plans to work its fleet harder in calendar 2016 after announcing the withdrawal of five Embraer E190s, as the airline group reaffirmed a return to profitability for the full 2015/16 financial year.

The 98-seat E190 fleet will be reduced to 13, from 18 currently, by September 2016, Virgin said in its 2015/16 first half financial results on Thursday.

The E190 disposals would be covered through increased utilisation of the airline’s Boeing 737-800 fleet, Virgin said.

Virgin also announced it would sell its six Embraer E170s which were currently sub-leased to alliance partner Delta Air Lines.

And the company said Virgin Australia Regional Airlines’ (VARA) Fokker 50s, which the airline put up for sale in October 2015, will be gone by the end of 2015/16.

The fleet optimisation initiatives were part of the airline group’s cost reduction program, as well helping pay down debt and improve fleet utilisation, Virgin said. The airline is targeting $1.2 billion in cumulative cost savings by the end of 2016/17.

The company has also brought back in-house line maintenance of its ATR turboprops and signed a new engine maintenance contract with Delta Air Lines for the 737 fleet.

As previously disclosed in its second quarter financial results, Virgin posted a welcome return to the black in the six months to December 31 2015 with net profit coming in at $62.5 million, compared with a $47.8 million statutory net loss in the prior corresponding period.

Virgin said it was the strongest net profit result since the first half of 2009/10.

Underlying profit before tax, which removes one-off items and was the airline’s preferred indicator of financial performance, rose to $81.5 million in the half, compared with $10.2 million a year ago.

http://australianaviation.com.au/201...0s-from-fleet/

[Dennis McLean]

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????????

[Rowan McKeever]

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

[MarkR]

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.

[Mick F]

Tiger +1 A320

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