It’s March 2020, Virgin Australia looks like it’s about to collapse, and its low-cost subsidiary, Tigerair, is gone. It reminds me of a certain airline called “Ansett Australia” that went bust after a major world event that occurred 19 years prior. Ansett went into administration, resumed limited services with its “A320 Skystars” and then ceased operations for good only a few months later. By all calculations Virgin Australia should suffer the same fate, it shouldn’t last out the year. But, somehow, it so far hasn’t, in fact, business is booming
I should mention that VA’s fleet has been severely affected by all this. Their 777’s that flew between Australia’s east coast and Los Angeles are gone, and so too are their transcontinental and international medium-haul A330, even their regional ATRs got the cut. These days Virgin Australia operates a solid fleet of Boeing 737-700’s and 737-800’s with their subsidy, Virgin Australia Regional, operating some A320s (Skystars) and Fokker 100’s, mainly for mining charters. They’ve also ordered some brand new 737 MAX 8’s and MAX 10’s due for delivery over the next couple of years to help boost capacity.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Virgin Australia is hosting a “hanger event” at Brisbane Airport next week. Virgin is teasing a “new era of flying” with this event. How we’ve gone from bankrupt to this is anyone’s guess, however, it raises some questions and as a proud platinum status member of Virgin, I can’t help myself
- There has been no word about business class seats on the 737 MAX, is Virgin about to reveal lie-flat seats for them?
- Could Virgin’s previous 777-300’s make a return on the Los Angeles route?
So I’m curious, what do you think Virgin Australia is about to announce? You can’t keep a good thing down
Flying the flag to new heights, what is Virgin Australia up too? image credit