Virgin Australia ATR's to fly MEL-LST

[Dirk L]

I'm surprised they are introducing ATR services to LST just before the peak summer tourist season kicks in, although JQ have eaten up a lot of VA's market share for LST- MEL route lately with JQ offering upto six flights a day all with A320 aircraft compared to VA offering only 4 sun - fri and just 3 on Saturdays. Would be interesting to see if they replace some of the existing 737 flights with more ATRs during the quiet winter season.

BTW I'm Dirk, new member here.

[Ryan K]

Hi Dirk, welcome. :-)

I'm surprised that Virgin aren't replacing one of their daily MEL-LST flights with a Tigerair service. Launceston still doesn't have a Tigerair service which is unusual for an airport that handles nearly 1.3 million passengers per year.

[Justin L]

LST used to have TT service pre-Virgin ownership days. TT would only cater for MEL-LST O&D traffic, whereas VA allows for through connections from MEL to other ports as well - better competing with QF for reach beyond MEL.

[Dirk L]

Back when Tiger was in LST, Virgin was still an considered a 'budget carrier' and had up to 5 LST-MEL flights daily with 737-800 aircraft and had the highest frequencies and seat numbers compared to any other carrier at the time. Things have changed since then.

Now that VA has full ownership of TT, maybe down the track they will re-brand it and make it more like the old Virgin blue style carrier as the name 'Tiger' still leaves a bad taste in peoples mouths.

[JamesL]

When was the last time you flew TT Dirk?

[Ryan K]

Originally Posted by Dirk L

Back when Tiger was in LST, Virgin was still an considered a 'budget carrier' and had up to 5 LST-MEL flights daily with 737-800 aircraft and had the highest frequencies and seat numbers compared to any other carrier at the time. Things have changed since then.

Now that VA has full ownership of TT, maybe down the track they will re-brand it and make it more like the old Virgin blue style carrier as the name 'Tiger' still leaves a bad taste in peoples mouths.

I'm surprised that Virgin don't use Tiger by taking on Jetstar in LST. Virgin are dropping to three LST-MEL flights a day, it would be good to see capacity kept the same by making up for the lost VA seats with a daily Tiger service.

[Justin L]

Don't forget JQ also codeshare with QF for international connections so those JQ flights include QF seats for onward international travel from MEL also. Unless TT/VA do something similar Tigerair will likely use their smaller fleet for better utilization on higher yield O&D routes.