From bankrupt to business as per usual, what is Virgin Australia about to announce?

Real World Aviation
#1

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

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Flying the flag to new heights, what is Virgin Australia up too? image credit

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#2

Very interesting… I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this, should be good to see where it goes. VA have been known to make bold claims then not deliver but hopefully this lives up to name.

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#3

As an Australian ramp agent I don’t think VA is going to bring back the 777/international flights.

  • One, because they don’t (appear) to have that much money and resources. I often see them on the other side of T2 struggling with resources.
  • Two, Qantas has just started up their A380 flights back again and given it’s 3x bigger than VA (based on revenue reports) I don’t think the international market will be coming back to VA for a few years

As for the seats, I don’t think VA will add them as that’s a luxury thing and Qantas is much more on the luxury side, in saying that VA does have first class and a lounge for luxury so who knows.

Those are my thoughts, however I could be completely wrong.

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#4

Considering it says “a new era of flying”, I can only assume its something good. Though, I could be wrong.

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#5

I legit thought that they had gone completely but pleased to see them making a recovery.

#6

Personally, of course, I hope that it will be announced that the validity of the travel vouchers for canceled flights in 2020 will be extended by two years until I can actually make it back to Australia again, haha.
Well, to be serious, since Virgin Australia is talking about a new era of flying, it could possibly be the announcement of a new corporate design, logo or something like that. I would also be happy to see Virgin Australia start flying international (long haul) routes again, maybe not necessarily with the 777. Certainly a bit of competition would help the market. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see what they actually announce.