V Australia requests capacity on SYD-JNB EFF-Oct 09

[Radi K]

http://www.travelweekly.com.au/articles/77/0C058977.asp

V Australia to fly to South Africa

Virgin Blue offshoot V Australia has filed an application with the government to fly five services per week between Sydney and Johannesburg.

V Australia, which is set to launch services between Sydney and Los Angeles from December 15, wants to commence flights from October 2009.

V Australia has also applied for unlimited capacity on the US route.

5 weekly from Oct 2009.

[Michael Morrison]

Good on them. Would be great if it was actually SYD-PER-JNB as that would allow us to fly VA from SYD-PER

Seems that they are cherry picking QF's cash cows.... (much like VS did with BA when they launched)

[Rhys Xanthis]

I think you will find that VA will do very little/nothing in terms of domestic haul services, although i guess they could...seems to me they would like to leave it to VB (unless of course costs justified it, but i dont think so).

Plus it would have to be direct to be competitive - after all, one would rather go direct than via somewhere if cost difference isn't a big issue!

[Steve Jones]

With the downtime the fleet will have between its US services, I believe they are looking at some shorter haul use of the aircraft rather than paying to sit on the ground in Sydney... I can't say much but watch this space...

[D Chan]

I am not sure how much of a market V Australia can grab on this route if they rely on O-D traffic - what sort of traffic feed could they generate from South Africa domestically. Also worth mentioning is the existing codeshare agreement between South African and Qantas - makes it even harder for a new entrant. The history of the codeshare is both carriers were struggling on routes between South Africa and Australia and South African were on the verge of pulling out (back in 2000).

Having said that VA's equipment (77W) is much more fuel efficient and should offer a great advantage over the 744s. However they are flying over a vast area of ocean and that makes me wonder.... wouldn't ETOPS restriction be a problem (I recall seeing a chart about 180 min ETOPs and the indian ocean as well as the pacific having a 'hole' where the areas are not within 180 minutes of nearest suitable airfield)? or perhaps they will be ETOPS 240min certified?

[Montague S]

excellent that this underserved route is getting some needed competition, VA might consider Perth-Joburg in their future plans? quite a large expat population here in the west.

[Rhys Xanthis]

Originally Posted by Montague S

excellent that this underserved route is getting some needed competition, VA might consider Perth-Joburg in their future plans? quite a large expat population here in the west.

Long time no see.

Perhaps, but SAA will have an A346 in a few months on this route in a few months up from the usual A342 equipment, which gives ~extra 80 seats per flight IIRC.

SAA only do a 5 x weekly, so i suspect if any capacity is needed, a 7 x weekly will most likely occur.

And while i don't know much about how to read the ETOPS on great circle mapper (http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=s...YLE=&ETOPS=330), it seems that the ETOPS will have to be 330 minutes rule, which the 773 can do IIRC.

Please correct me on the ETOPS if need be

[Radi K]

Originally Posted by Rhys Xanthis

Please correct me on the ETOPS if need be

The B777 is rated to 180/207 minute ETOPS (or EDTO as it's now known) at the moment. 207 simply being 180 + 15%.

Boeing are currently working on getting the aircraft certified to the 240 and 330 minute marks. The two big hurdles, as always, is cargo fire suppression for that long and crew and passenger oxygen availability. It's because, worst case, is a loss of an engine (or fire) and simultaneous decompression. Long time to fly on 1 engine at 10,000ft!

[Stuart Trevena]

Hi All,

I know I keep saying this, but someone has to keep raising it.

Whay don't they ops through Melbourne, as we currently don't have a JNB flight, even though they operate over Melbourne and Geelong enoute to / from JNB??

It is rather silly for Melb. folk to fly to Sydney to board the aircraft, just to overfly Melbourne again a few hours later.

Stuart

[Andi O]

Originally Posted by D Chan

However they are flying over a vast area of ocean and that makes me wonder.... wouldn't ETOPS restriction be a problem (I recall seeing a chart about 180 min ETOPs and the indian ocean as well as the pacific having a 'hole' where the areas are not within 180 minutes of nearest suitable airfield)? or perhaps they will be ETOPS 240min certified?

Air Mauritius used to use 767's Mauritius-Melbourne and Perth-Mauritius nonstop and I believe they are about to throw on A330's to Perth so I guess there is some way to get there within the ETOPS rules.