Virgin Blue has announced the first phase of action following its network review, which will see Pacific Blue end its domestic New Zealand services, while V Australia will cut its Nadi services.
Pac Blue’s domestic NZ services will be cut from October 18, with passengers with bookings for after that time to be offered refunds or re-accommodated on other airlines. The capacity will be redeployed on trans-Tasman and other international, medium haul services, including increasing Christchurch-Melbourne services from October 31 to a daily service. It will also take over the Sydney-Nadi services operated by V Australia from October 19.
V Australia will focus its capacity on the US, South Africa and Thailand markets. This will see its Sydney-Los Angeles schedule tweaked to offer a morning departure from Sydney, allowing for better connections to the US east coast. From December, the airline will operate daily Sydney-Los Angeles routes, while it will add a daily service on the Melbourne-Johannesburg, Melbourne-Los Angeles and Melbourne-Phuket services.
We are adding capacity to routes with strong revenue potential and accordingly, removing capacity from services which are underperforming,” said CEO John Borghetti. “These changes will maximise yields, increase aircraft utilisation and also provide a more attractive schedule for the business market, including better integration of our international and domestic schedules.”
Borghetti added that the carrier would soon announce further developments following its network review, which is expected to see some changes to the domestic Australian network of Virgin Blue. The company noted that it expects to build on its recent agreement with Skywest to increase its reach into the WA market.
