Virgin Australia Out Of Albany-Esperance Tender

[Greg McDonald]

Originally Posted by Daniel M

ummmm

Yeah...funny stuff!!!

[Arthur Boy]

It has nothing to do with the F50's. (just wait till the Saabs or the EMB's come!).

It has everything to do with the CEO of VARA being the most incompetent manager in VA.

How can you not make a profit on a monopoly route??

Dr Jacobs in Esperance and Mr Watson in Albany have also highly contributed to VA pulling out by constantly whingeing about the VA and prior to that, the Skywest service.

Now that VA have pulled the pin, the DoT in WA have also got a massive amount of egg on their faces as well. Once Skippers or Rex get the route the complaining will really start and Messer's Jacobs and Watson will really have something to complain about (should have not been so vocal in in the VA and XR days methinks.....) as they expected champagne on a beer budget.

ME you are right, VA are quite rightly in it for the profits, and why not? the problem is that the DoT and the regionals want it all and give NOTHING to assist in terms of assistance and the airlines are expected to provide all the effort and get very little, in fact NO support, in return. That said, VARA should pull out and good luck to the people of Esperance and Albany as the new operators will be significantly poorer in terms of service operated compared to the Virgin and more particularly the Skywest service.

[Radi K]

Originally Posted by Arthur Boy

It has everything to do with the CEO of VARA being the most incompetent manager in VA.

Agreed. Same manager who lost the Toll freight contract and is in charge of Virgin Cargo, which at present has not signed one major customer since it started.

[Rowan McKeever]

Originally Posted by Arthur Boy

How can you not make a profit on a monopoly route??

If it were possible to make a profit on every monopoly route, there wouldn't be regulated air routes. By definition, these routes only exist because the state government has decided they need to... there is no commercial imperative whatsoever.

[Ellis Taylor]

A lot of the problem is the F50s. Back when Skywest was listed, you would see that, in a good month, their RPT operation made around a 60% load factor. Most of the time it hovered around 50%. That says to me that a 46-seat aircraft was too big, and at best a 36- or 19-seater would have worked. If Ansett hadn't forced Skywest to take the F50s way back in the '90s, and instead they stayed with J32s, it may have been a different story. But that is all moot now.

Word around is that Skywest started to suffer after the last round of regulatory review where they lost Carnarvon and a couple of other routes to Skippers. Prior to that, the network on the whole paid its way, but for them they would never have made it without some of bigger earners subsidising the loss-making routes.

[Rob R]

Spot on re the size of the aircraft, the F50 is too big for the routes, as is the Q300/400 hence QF has not expressed interest in taking over.

Just a small correction re Skywest, they operatd the J31 (not the J32) and they were one of the first operators of the type.

[Arthur Boy]

Correct ET, the beginning of the end was when GET, and then later LEA, were deregulated.

They were XR's cash cows which covered the loss makers.

The WA DoT have no idea how to handle it and have gone from one mess to the next.

Pity the customers will get less service all round.....if you thought VA was ordinary (very!) then wait for Rex and/or Skippers!!! Crappy planes, loads of delays, and the list goes on!

[Stefan Perkas]

Could it be possible that REX may have picked up the Esperance and Albany contracts. They are currently advertising for Airport Coordinators and LAMEs (B1 and B2) for Perth. http://www.rex.com.au/Jobs/JobList.aspx

[Max C]

They are also looking for PER-based Flight and Cabin Crew.

I'd say it's a done deal.