V Australia cans Melbourne - LAX

[Gareth Forwood]

Slightly OT, can the 77W fly direct SYD-JNB, or do the ETOPS regulations make it impossible.

[Mick B]

Last I heard they can't...depending how far south you go, you can be up to 4-5hrs from another airport. What sort of ETOPS rules are VA operating the 773 to? Is it 207 mins now?

The only way to get round that would be to fly further north, where you encounter some pretty serious headwinds, with the end result being tight on fuel. Depressurisation planning issues might also come into play.

PER-JNB would make sense, heaps of South Africans there (and we all know how much they like to save a buck!) and offers an alternative to SAA.

[Jim Liu]

VA is still selling MEL - LAX nonstop tickets...for now

[Ash W]

Originally Posted by Andrew M

Poor old V can't really do anything right with this launch, and most of it was/is out of their control.

1. Boeing Strike - Delayed Planes
Results in delayed launch & moving customers to other airlines - Frustrates customers

2. Economy Crisis - People just are not travelling

3. Delta's flights

4. Swine Flu - Small impact no doubt

5. Moving customers to/from BNE flights, stuff them around once they will not come back

End result is the canning of the MEL-LAX flights and poor loads on the SYD-LAX flights.

Yeah most of it is out of their control, but sadly this is the risk you take when trying to squeeze into new markets and indeed markets that are already well served by incumbant operators.

[gavin m-cox]

well, if v australia was smart...try SYD-CEBU..i fly there 5 times a year,,,,sometimes it takes me 24 hours to get there....syd-hkg-mnl-ceb....qf and pal..allways book out.well most of the time.......

[Greg McDonald]

Originally Posted by Ash W

Yeah most of it is out of their control, but sadly this is the risk you take when trying to squeeze into new markets and indeed markets that are already well served by incumbant operators.

Even if the incumbent operators are ripping you off blind...which is why they took the risk

[Ash W]

Greg not sure what you mean? Even if Qantas and United are "ripping" us off it doesn't mean that V-Aus coming into the market would be succesful.

PS on the note of ripping us off, yes the prices are high, but in todays business world the value of something is the price the market will pay. So yes on a per KM basis compared to other segments Aus-US flights are high, but using a business sense it could be argued the the price is fair.

[Andre H]

Why they have enough ETOPS Range for the transpacific flights as a new Airline with no experience ?


Greetings from Berlin

[Gareth Forwood]

Hi Andre. Forgive me if I've misinterpreted your post - As far as I'm aware, ETOPS is based on the aircraft, not the airline. Based on a 207 min ETOPS, the 77W can easily make it to LAX without any route alteration.



The dark areas indicate regions outside the 207 min limit. This is from the Great Circle Mapper. As always, if I'm wrong, I'm most happy to be corrected.

[Nathan Long]

Originally Posted by Gareth Forwood

...ETOPS is based on the aircraft, not the airline. ...

It's both.