Edited 18 Dec 2020 22:58, 3 months ago, edited by DirtyBallast

Not exactly politics but Virgin Airlines new owners have launched a new ad campaign starring (strangely) America's Got Talent runner-up Annie Jones:

https://youtu.be/lopmUNUJERs

The new American venture capital owners (Bain Capital) are hoping that the re-positioned airline will make inroads into Qantas's passenger base with an all-737 fleet and an emphasis on capital city routes; they're competing with a newly-capitalised REX which is also going into the capital city markets and Qantas with its very deep pockets and established customer base.

Personally I never liked the old Virgin and always avoided them where-ever possible - almost as expensive as Qantas but with none of the service or reliability. If you're going to fly budget it might as well have been Jetstar - although often as unreliable as Virgin at least the prices were usually much more attractive.

Too bad if you were a shareholder of the old Virgin Australia - they got exactly nothing out of the re-birthed airline deal. And Queensland taxpayers have sunk another $200 million into it in exchange for keeping the airline headquartered in Brisbane (and a small slice of equity). I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out they've spent that money for no reason - its already been broke once, Bain Capital won't hesitate to just shut it down if it turns out their investment bleeds their money.

Rex is competing with Virgin, not the other way around. In fact they are leasing some of Virgin's planes to provide their new east coast triangle services.

Qantas only has deep pockets because Alan Joyce builds war chests by crying poor to the government, then repeatedly sacking staff.

Virgin were competitive with Qantas price wise but excelled with their premium product and offered stuff not available with Qantas, like half a dozen rows in economy class with extra legroom and family pooling of status credits with their Velocity frequent flyer program. That last point is more significant than you think. They were miles ahead of Jetstar with inclusions.

Any modicum of research will reveal that there is actually very little difference in service reliability between any of the carriers.

Only a fool would buy shares in an airline.

Bain's intention with Virgin is to provide the cheapest service possible, turn revenue in the right direction, and flog it off.

Bain's way of doing that is to offer a service worse than Jetstar or Tiger. IMHO it is the wrong direction to take; Virgin were a pleasure to fly with when they turned themselves into a full service carrier from their earlier discount carrier days, but you are right, Qantas had deeper pockets.

Edited 18 Dec 2020 22:46, 3 months ago, edited by DirtyBallast

Not exactly politics but Virgin Airlines new owners have launched a new ad campaign starring (strangely) America's Got Talent runner-up Annie Jones:

https://youtu.be/lopmUNUJERs

The new American venture capital owners (Bain Capital) are hoping that the re-positioned airline will make inroads into Qantas's passenger base with an all-737 fleet and an emphasis on capital city routes; they're competing with a newly-capitalised REX which is also going into the capital city markets and Qantas with its very deep pockets and established customer base.

Personally I never liked the old Virgin and always avoided them where-ever possible - almost as expensive as Qantas but with none of the service or reliability. If you're going to fly budget it might as well have been Jetstar - although often as unreliable as Virgin at least the prices were usually much more attractive.

Too bad if you were a shareholder of the old Virgin Australia - they got exactly nothing out of the re-birthed airline deal. And Queensland taxpayers have sunk another $200 million into it in exchange for keeping the airline headquartered in Brisbane (and a small slice of equity). I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out they've spent that money for no reason - its already been broke once, Bain Capital won't hesitate to just shut it down if it turns out their investment bleeds their money.

Rex is competing with Virgin, not the other way around. In fact they are leasing some of their planes to provide their new east coast triangle services.

Qantas only has deep pockets because Alan Joyce builds war chests by crying poor to the government, then repeatedly sacking staff.

Virgin were competitive with Qantas price wise but excelled with their premium product and offered stuff not available with Qantas, like half a dozen rows in economy class with extra legroom and family pooling of status credits with their Velocity frequent flyer program. That last point is more significant than you think. They were miles ahead of Jetstar with inclusions.

Any modicum of research will reveal that there is actually very little difference in service reliability between any of the carriers.

Only a fool would buy shares in an airline.

Bain's intention with Virgin is to provide the cheapest service possible, turn revenue in the right direction, and flog it off.

Bain's way of doing that is to offer a service worse than Jetstar or Tiger. IMHO it is the wrong direction to take; Virgin were a pleasure to fly with when they turned themselves into a full service carrier from their earlier discount carrier days, but you are right, Qantas had deeper pockets.