DJ Melbourne to Mildura Launch

[Justin L]

DJ are launching Melbourne to Mildura. Travel from 13 October for $59 one way.

Schedules:
MEL-MQL 1040-1140 DJ1323
MQL-MEL 1210-1310 DJ1324

http://www.virginblue.com.au/Persona...ials/index.htm

[Adam P.]

Oh!

Interesting, veeeery interesting. Not a direct competitor with Rex at this stage - the single daily DJ service fits neatly between the Rex morning and afternoon flights. But once they have their foot in the door in that market there's nothing to say frequency can't be increased later on. This will be one to watch.

[Marty H]

REX charge $128 one way they also have a departure at 11:45 from Melbourne.

[Brian Wilkes]

Originally Posted by Adam P.

Oh!

Interesting, veeeery interesting. Not a direct competitor with Rex at this stage - the single daily DJ service fits neatly between the Rex morning and afternoon flights. But once they have their foot in the door in that market there's nothing to say frequency can't be increased later on. This will be one to watch.

I beg to differ on an little E-Jet! Watch them add more flights as pax find out about the different and quicker service on offer as you have said watch this space!

Now all VB needs is a Devonport Service with the E's

[Marty H]

Originally Posted by Brian Wilkes

I beg to differ on an little E-Jet! Watch them add more flights as pax find out about the different and quicker service on offer as you have said watch this space!

Now all VB needs is a Devonport Service with the E's

Agree, is that route is only served by QF link Brian????

Also as I pointed out in my last post huge difference in prices also, its clear DJ are after REX.

[Brian Wilkes]

Originally Posted by Marty H

Agree, is that route is only served by QF link Brian????

Also as I pointed out in my last post huge difference in prices also, its clear DJ are after REX.

Yep all you need is 1 or 2 services a day would be better and blow this thing wide open

[Adam P.]

For the moment it's just the one E-Jet service a day, as I mentioned before. I would expect to see more capacity on the route before too much longer, assuming of course that they have the resources to operate it with... watch also for a price war of sorts, as happened when DJ kicked off SYD-ABX flights.

The gamble that DJ are taking, however, is whether the market is big enough to sustain a jet. If Virgin Blue think they can attract enough bums on seats to make it viable, fair play to them. The fact remains though that a Saab can break even with a seat factor of about 30% (in rough figures 10 pax). You simply cannot beat turboprop economics for the lower passenger numbers and stage lengths typical on Australian regional routes.

[Adam G]

Originally Posted by Adam P.

The gamble that DJ are taking, however, is whether the market is big enough to sustain a jet. If Virgin Blue think they can attract enough bums on seats to make it viable, fair play to them. The fact remains though that a Saab can break even with a seat factor of about 30% (in rough figures 10 pax). You simply cannot beat turboprop economics for the lower passenger numbers and stage lengths typical on Australian regional routes.

Adam - the difference is that for larger carriers (QF/DJ) the regional routes are meerly there to feed the more lucerative routes (domestic trunk & international) & offer passengers the ability to fly on one carrier acorss the entire network. They don't actually have to make a profit on the MQL/MEL flight if on carriage pax from that flight onto other domestic/intl routes leads to an overall profit for the passenger on the network. Opening up regional routes allowes passengers seemless travel on one airline (bags/FF points/1 check-in etc) rather then swapping between carriers. The increased brand awareness in the regional ports also leads to increased loads on other routes as well.

The dangar Rex faces is that QF/DJ can endulge in long term losses on these flights through price wars as at the end of the day it benefits their overall network - for Rex, this is their network & they can't afford the losses long term.

[Anthony T]

Hi there

This was pretty much on the cards, The aircraft currently lays over in MEL (between 712 & 847) for the exact amount of time it takes to get to Mildura and back.

If the Port macquarie route is anything to go by, expect the Mildura route to take off. (Excuse the pun)

Anthony T

[NickN]

Simple economics will see passengers forgo a $128 fare with REX for a $59 fare with Virgin. Before long the Virgin deal will be the talk of the town and everyone will be scrambling to book the daily Virgin flight which will mean packed E-Jets. Soon thereafter a second daily service will be added and REX will lose its patronage.