Extra Virgin Fokkers will serve Newcastle-Brisbane route
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Virgin Australia has moved to cut costs and fuel consumption by using extra leased Fokker F100 jets on the Newcastle-Brisbane route and extending its leased ATR 72 flights in regional Queensland
An Alliance (Qantaslink or Virgin) F100 photo: David Blackwell
In moves that are straight from the Qantas regional services play book, Virgin Australia is increasing its use of leased Alliance Airways Fokker F100 on the Brisbane-Newcastle run and adding more leased Skywest ATR 72 turboprops on secondary Queensland routes.
The services will be in aircraft painted in the Virgin Australia livery, and in the case of the Alliance F100s, the Queensland charter and fly in-fly out mining industry operator also operates some F100 services for Qantaslink.
The F100 is a five abreast Dutch airliner that went out of production in the ’90s and is a stretch of the Fokker F-28 which was seen in Australian service in the 80s and 90s for Ansett and its subsidiaries Airlines of NSW, and Airlines NT, and East-West after its purchase by the Ansett group.
The additional ATR services between Brisbane and Emerald kick in from 29 October, and on the Brisbane-Rockhampton run from 12 November. The Emerald flights last almost two hours, but the Qantaslink record for long endurance turbo-prop flights remain unchallenged with its recent announcement of the epic Sydney-Gladstone services and the almost as heroic Canberra-Adelaide turbo-prop flights, which will be carried out by Bombardier Q400s.
The new F100 flights between Newcastle and Brisbane start on 12 November, and will increase Virgin Australia’s services on that route from two to three a day from Mondays through Fridays. The jets are configured with 100 economy seats, and while the cushion size is nearly equal to that on 737s, there is uniformly slightly better seat pitch than on Virgin Australia’s 737s, where several rows are notably tighter than the rest.
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I bet you’ve been waiting for that airline and plane combination for a while, Ben!
Ben, you left out MacRobertson Miller Airlines or Mickey Mouse Airlines as it was known in Western Australia. MMA flew F28s on some very long routes such as Perth to Kununurra. The sound of the Rolls-Royce RB183-2 “Spey” engines on the F28 is something I’ll never forget. Similar in sound to the Kuznetzov engine which powered the Tupolev Tu-154.
The number of Fokker 100s built over its production lifespan (283) is less than the number of firm orders the Comac C919 has now got (330).
Maybe Virgin should order something new and interesting (the C919) instead of using obsolete aircraft.
Ben, as my husband is a die-hard Virgin flyer (while I prefer the relic of Qantas, just), I’d at least like to be armed with the knowledge of which rows in a Virgin 737 are to be avoided, so I don’t have to suffer them. Is there somewhere you’ve spirited awa this info? (like my own – as yet unproven – belief that the first few rows on the right side of a Jetstar A320 suffer tighter pitch)
Sue B,
Virgin says in its fleet map section that some rows are 31-33 inches seat pitch in economy in the 737-800, and only 30 inches in the 737-700, of which there are only a few remaining in service pending replacement with -800s.
In the -800 the distribution of those rows seems to vary to my eyes, and knees, because they are sourced from different leasing companies in some cases, but near the wing trailing edge and right at the rear seem worst. I don’t think there are many rows that are 33 inch pitch. However it is clear that Virgin is trying to make the 737 experience completely consistent as they move to all 737-800s and replace some of the older examples with newly sourced ones.
Yes Flylo MMA did operate the F28 in WA in the 60s and 70s but not as far as I recall non stop Perth-Kununurra. The longest sector I recall was BME-PER, but not vice versa. On the way ‘up’ the major stop was Port Hedland for what was the beginning of the FIFO era. The aircraft utilisation by MMA was pretty impressive with one aircraft leaving PER at about 6-00am then going to Pt Hedland, Broome, Derby, Kununurra, Darwin, then out to Gove and/or Groote, back to Darwin and return via Kununurra, Derby and Broome then direct to Perth arriving there about midnight.
Hey Ben,
Isn’t the elephant in the room the E190? Strikes me as strange that the Alliance F100 comes across on a wet lease when VA has 18 same sized jets. Unless this is about extra capacity? What am I missing here?
The ‘logical’ explanation offered for this is that one F100 rotation to Rockhampton has been replaced by an ATR 72 and that capacity has been redeployed for the extra weekday F100 to Newcastle, slightly lifting the utilisation Virgin is getting for the Fokker as well.
Be that as it may, there are ample signs that the E-jet has fallen out of favour with management, even thought I think it is fair to say it is a very positive product differentiator for the airline.
There are clear signs that Virgin Australia is growing and that extra capacity is needed, if it can be financed, which is a big issue these days for carriers and manufacturers alike.
Itfisher, I bow to your greater knowledge of MMA. Thanks for sharing this information. Scheduling for aircraft utilisation of 18 hours in a day is very impressive!
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