VIRGIN Blue yesterday rejected claims it had applied for the rights to fly to San Francisco and Los Angeles but confirmed it was exploring the possibility of US services.
Reports of the airline’s interest in the lucrative Pacific route helped wipe 2.8 per cent off the value of Qantas shares, which dropped 10c to close at $3.45.
Qantas shares may also have been hurt by increasing indications the flying kangaroo faces a stoush with flight attendants over plans to base 400 long-haul cabin crew in London.
Virgin flagged its interest in the US in May as one of 15 possibilities being explored by the unit as it tries to identify expansion opportunities.
The airline has also indicated an interest in expanding into Asia.
Other possibilities are understood to include a freight airline, a ground handling business or regional operations.
Virgin’s interest in the US comes as foreign carriers like Singapore Airlines and tourism interests are pressuring the federal Government to open up the Pacific to more competition.
The low-cost carrier confirmed yesterday it had written to the Transport Department canvassing options for US services. But officials said the inquiries were preliminary and “a lot more analysis” was needed before there was a concrete proposal.
“Much water has to pass under the bridge before this project would grow into a real airline,” said Virgin chief executive Brett Godfrey. “It’s one of many opportunities and it’s still very embryonic.
“You would appreciate that because of the long lead time you need to get the ball rolling and have the business development unit modelling and analysing the opportunity.”
Mr Godfrey said the US proposal was no different from Virgin Blue’s examination of opportunities in Asia.
“Sometimes you have to turn over a few stones to find a few gems,” he said.
Three carriers – Qantas, United Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines – fly directly from Australia to the US but Air New Zealand competes strongly on the route via Auckland and several airlines offer competitive packages through Asia or the Pacific.
By: greekdude1 - 12th July 2004 at 19:47
I would have said the 757, due to its range and capacity, but now i would probably say the 777-200LR, or even the new 7E7
That’s quite a jump going from the 757 to the 777/7E7.
There’s no way an airline is going to suceed trying to operate a narrowbody across the Pacific. Besides, whatever happens to UA’s and DJ’s codshare agreement? In UA’s Hemispheres magazine, they have DJ as a codeshare partner in Australia. However, I never see any DJ routes when checking UA’s schedules or making reservations.
By: steve rowell - 12th July 2004 at 11:02
Why would they operate the 767 or the 7E7 on this route while their competitors use the larger 744, that doesn’t make sense
By: steve rowell - 12th July 2004 at 06:11
If they’re serious about flying to the West coast of the USA, they’re going to have to compete head on with UA, QF and ANZ and they fly non-stop with 744’s, so i couldn’t see VB going for anything smaller
By: dartie - 12th July 2004 at 06:02
I would have said the 757, due to its range and capacity, but now i would probably say the 777-200LR, or even the new 7E7
By: greekdude1 - 11th July 2004 at 23:46
I dont think they would send the A340-300 to them! It wont suit in with their fleet, plus also theyre getting old the A340-300’s arent they?
I’d say the oldest A340’s out there are right around 10 years old. I surely wouldn’t consider a 10 y/o airframe to be old, by any means.
Darite, just out of curiosity, if the A340 aren’t suited for DJ’s fleet, other than their current choice, what other types would be suitable?
By: dartie - 11th July 2004 at 11:06
I dont think they would send the A340-300 to them! It wont suit in with their fleet, plus also theyre getting old the A340-300’s arent they?
By: tenthije - 11th July 2004 at 09:34
Virgin Atlantic is replacing their A340-300s. They could send some of them to Virgin Blue.
By: greekdude1 - 11th July 2004 at 03:55
The 737’s won’t make it without a stop enroute, direct rout from SYD to LAX is 6508NM, the 737-800 can only go 4,200 with 140 passengers, 10,000lbs of cargo, and 46,500lbs of fuel. Stop of enroute perhaps?
Of course they won’t, Matthew, which is precisely why I said this on my first post on this thread:
a 73G with stops in Fiji, Tahiti and Hawaii en route?
By: dartie - 10th July 2004 at 09:17
Oh C,mon, they wouldn’t be silly enough to operate 180 pax type aircraft on that sort of international route, it just wouldn’t be feasible
Exactly, the demand would be to high, if they used that type of aircraft and they wouldn’t, we would see the SYD-LAX service with stops becoming a 5 times daily service :p lol, jokes, but yea you can see my point and steve’s!
By: steve rowell - 10th July 2004 at 04:35
Oh C,mon, they wouldn’t be silly enough to operate 180 pax type aircraft on that sort of international route, it just wouldn’t be feasible
By: andrewm - 10th July 2004 at 01:00
Via PHNL is only option i can see as they will fly over PHNL when flying to LAX anyway!
By: greekdude1 - 9th July 2004 at 20:02
I think they should open up a San Francisco to Sydney Service, it will be the only australian on that route, i think United still operate on the route!
Indeed they do.
Why not follow the lead of NZ and just continue one of 2 daily VS flights to LAX onto SYD? They they’d be serving Australia from the east and west.
By: KabirT - 9th July 2004 at 14:30
Crossing the pacific on a 737….. sheer torture.
By: MapleLeaf_330 - 9th July 2004 at 14:25
I think that they would take aircraft from the mainline Virgin fleet. Don’t they have aircraft in storage? I might be wrong about that. If their west coast base is going to be SFO then wouldn’t they base out of their and feed into it with the domestic carrier? I don’t think they could stay with a complete no frills service. I’ve done the flight to Sydney from Canada and you want a little bit of comfort.
By: dartie - 9th July 2004 at 03:25
Yes well they have already announced flight plans for flights from Brisbane/Melbourne to Port Villa and Brisbane/Melbourne to Nadi, and they also already announced fares and the connecting flights for this, it is all subject to government approval though, but im sure they will secure those rights!
By: GDL - 9th July 2004 at 02:54
What type of equipment does DJ plan on using from Australia to the U.S., a 73G with stops in Fiji, Tahiti and Hawaii en route?
Exactly! They would need to be looking at something like a B777 at least I think. I have heard nothing on the news about this, but the jump, if it happens, would not totally surprise me as they now compete on the Trans-Tasman market with Pacific Blue to NZ. They have talked about Pacific expansion too.
By: dartie - 9th July 2004 at 02:39
I think they should open up a San Francisco to Sydney Service, it will be the only australian on that route, i think United still operate on the route!
By: steve rowell - 8th July 2004 at 06:52
They’d have to look at some long range non stop equipment, if only to compete with the likes of United and Qantas
By: greekdude1 - 8th July 2004 at 06:48
What type of equipment does DJ plan on using from Australia to the U.S., a 73G with stops in Fiji, Tahiti and Hawaii en route?
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July 8, 2004 at 6:10 am