5 new Virgin Blue routes

[Greg F]

Originally Posted by Marty H

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. It's called VB having more of an idea than you do!!!

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

Barely a week after Virgin Blue boss Brett Godfrey admitted flying from Tasmania to Adelaide was not making money, Tiger Airways decided to launch flights between the two backwater states.

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

[Greg F]

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.

[Greg F]

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!

[Kim F]

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.

[Greg F]

Originally Posted by Kim F

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

[Marty H]

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.

[Kain C]

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.

[Paul C.]

Originally Posted by Greg F

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...

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.

[Arthur T]

5 New Routes for DJ
CANBERRA – HOBART
CANBERRA – TOWNSVILLE
TOWNSVILLE – GOLD COAST
TOWNSVILLE – CAIRNS
TOWNSVILLE - ROCKHAMPTON

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.