Virgin's next round of cuts

[Lukas M]

News just starting to come out. More to follow

Virgin Blue will introduce a ‘pay for weight’ baggage policy and raise its ‘Flexible Fares’ by up to five per cent on some business routes as part of new cost cutting measures.

It will also trim capacity by three per cent from October 2008 by taking two Boeing 737 aircraft out of service. This comes on top of the previously announced six per cent capacity reduction for 2008/09.

The carrier has also reached agreement with Embraer to delay the delivery of five aircraft, reducing capacity in 2008/09 by a further three per cent.

The airline said there will be no redundancies at either Virgin Blue or Pacific Blue.

Under the new baggage fees, a flat pre-purchased levy of $8 will apply from September 1 for bags of 23 kgs of checked baggage for passengers travelling on discount fares. That will rise to $20 for passengers who have not pre-purchased

tw

[Michael Dawson]

That is not really being that unfair. Pay the $8 when you buy your ticket online and you won't have any problems. At the end of the day Virgin is doing its best to keep it is ticket prices down during the current situation and at the same time not cutting staff. Unlike Qantas where profits come before people to keep the shareholders happy.

Regards

Michael

[Andrew P]

Originally Posted by Michael Dawson

Unlike Qantas where profits come before people to keep the shareholders happy.

Regards

Michael

what a load of c..p,

if DJ directors took alternateview they would be sued for failing their professional

duties

Banjo

[D Chan]

Originally Posted by Michael Dawson

Unlike Qantas where profits come before people to keep the shareholders happy.

I am really glad I didn't buy DJ shares because I was tempted at one stage when it was $2 or so - I would be crying poor now. I hadn't pay much attention to their share prices for around half a year and the next time I saw their share price below $1 I was absolutely stunned. Didn't even know it went under a dollar (that was when it was at like 90 cents).

though I do agree the $8 surcharge is quite generous.

[Lukas M]

New Route for Pac Blue MEL-AKL daily, and now 4weekly MEL-CHC

[Marty H]

Originally Posted by Lukas M

New Route for Pac Blue MEL-AKL daily, and now 4weekly MEL-CHC

So how is that a cut???

If that is the case I would hope VB will be taking the ground handling away from Aero care and giving it to VB ground crew.

[Lukas M]

Originally Posted by Marty H

So how is that a cut???

rather than creating a new thread.....

just pretend it says "Virgins next round of cuts and additional capacity". We need a tool where we can change the thread name

[Marty H]

Originally Posted by Lukas M

rather than creating a new thread.....

just pretend it says "Virgins next round of cuts and additional capacity". We need a tool where we can change the thread name

Ohhhh

[Michael Morrison]

Great to see MEL-AKL on DJ.

This route could do with the extra uplift - lets hope the punters support it.

[Steve Jones]

I have heard that the 737 capacity being dumped by Virgin will be (at least partially) being taken up by Pacific Blue. So MEL-AKL isn't surprising. I also heard on another forum of a possible deal with Air Vanuatu similar to the Polynesian Blue deal, but it's gone a bit quiet in the last few days. If so, the Pacific could get interesting...