Virgin Parking Planes?

I did a quick search for this but couldn't find anything...

Do Virgin have any plans to park up some of their planes? I know they have a relatively small fleet anyway and they've deferred orders but are there plans afoot for a significant reduction in capacity?

I ask because someone at work said he knew a VS captain who had, apparently, positioned some Airbuses/Airbi (the plural of Airbus anyone???) to be parked up. I hadn't heard anything about it.

Well I haven't heard anything about this at all.

I would be pretty surprised if I am honest. That isn't me talking with rose tinted glasses. If we look at the facts:

1. VS deffered the 346's last year- sensible really.
2. 380 has been delayed due to assembly issues which is good for VS.
3. The planed EY 343 lease has now been stopped
4. LGW 744 leases been extended rather than order extra 380's/777/748i as was announced last year.
5. The fleet is pretty well stretched at the moment. With a small fleet you can concentrate on serving high yielding routes only or good performing leisure routes. This is what VS do.

Unlike other carriers, in particular the American carriers, VS do not operate a large fleet to wide range of destinations that don't always make money. Also worth noting that unlike post 9/11, the VS fleet is now modern so older gas guzzlers are not loosing the company money.

The extra recruitment of CC for the 2nd HKG service also suggests that the fleet wont be made smaller. If it was to be, you wouldn't go and hire a load of extra CC.

If the rumour was to be true, then given how hard the fleet is worked they would need to drop some routes, which hasn't happened.

Too ensure that the airline is good they need a small fleet that is in the air for as long as possible and high yielding routes (or routes with good cargo demand). To me VS have both of these.

[Neil]

I can't see that they can mean any of the existing fleet and in any case surely no airline would just 'park up' their a/c for a period of time, especially when like VS they are run very tight as it is.

With the introduction of the 2nd HKG daily flight later this year and taking on extra routes like MBJ/KIN/ORD/MRU in the last year or so, it doesn't point to a reduction. Fair enough things are likely to stay pretty static for the time being but with the economy the way it is.

Originally posted by Neil
I can't see that they can mean any of the existing fleet and in any case surely no airline would just 'park up' their a/c for a period of time.

Happens more than you would think.

Post 9/11 a lot of big legacy carriers parked a/c out in the desert of California/Nevada/Arizona. A quick search on a.net shows thousands of a/c all in current livery parked up. UA 777 Here,

Happens in the UK at places like Exeter and Lasham as well. For months in Exeter they had 146's from BE and BA parked up.

VS parked up the B747-200's post 9/11. As for the positioning flight, perhaps an aircraft going to LHT-Manila????

If the rumour was to be true, then given how hard the fleet is worked they would need to drop some routes, which hasn't happened.

That's what I thought. I don't know how reliable the source is...

surely no airline would just 'park up' their a/c for a period of time

As Willd says it does happens a lot, there are still lots of 146s at Exeter but I think most of them are to be scrapped, one was taken apart last week. Just an example, both BA and Ryanair air parking aircraft this winter to reduce capacity and costs:
BA: BA to ground part of its fleet over rising costs
Ryanair: Ryanair to ground 10% of fleet

Originally posted by Joffy
...

Airbuses/Airbi (the plural of Airbus anyone???)

Definitely the first. The etimology of the word 'bus' itself is a contraction of a dative/ablative plural form in the 3rd declination, IIRC, bla bla bla ... so by the time you get to bus as a noun, all attempts to adhere to some form of latin declination can safely go out the window [:)]

The only ones that may have been parked up are G-VBUS as Virgin Nigeria now using 767s and G-VAEL and G-VFLY as not sure where they went when they left the fleet.
As you say the 346s are often positioned to Manila for maintenance.
Definitly wont be parking up any of the existing fleet, in fact the groundstaff in JFK told us that the VS 25 service is stopping to free up an a/c for the 2nd HKG.

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by MarkedMan

Originally posted by Joffy
...

Airbuses/Airbi (the plural of Airbus anyone???)

Definitely the first. The etimology of the word 'bus' itself is a contraction of a dative/ablative plural form in the 3rd declination, IIRC, bla bla bla ... so by the time you get to bus as a noun, all attempts to adhere to some form of latin declination can safely go out the window [:)]

Are you related to Decker [?]

Originally posted by virginboy747
The only ones that may have been parked up are G-VBUS as Virgin Nigeria now using 767s and G-VAEL and G-VFLY as not sure where they went when they left the fleet.
As you say the 346s are often positioned to Manila for maintenance.
Definitly wont be parking up any of the existing fleet, in fact the groundstaff in JFK told us that the VS 25 service is stopping to free up an a/c for the 2nd HKG.

Did I miss something or is this a red herring - VS reducing New York flights from 6 to 5 per day? I simply don't believe it - it must be silly outstations staff surely?

Originally posted by slinky09
Did I miss something or is this a red herring - VS reducing New York flights from 6 to 5 per day? I simply don't believe it - it must be silly outstations staff surely?

Seems to be true!
Actually makes some sense - much easier to cut back capacity where there are alternative services.

[Neil]

Originally posted by slinky09
Did I miss something or is this a red herring - VS reducing New York flights from 6 to 5 per day? I simply don't believe it - it must be silly outstations staff surely?

As Bill said, it has been rumoured for a while and been discussed in a few threads on here over the last couple of months. IIRC however a VS staff member said that it was the 9/10 that was going to be dropped not the 25 but things may have changed.

Neil

Well they certainly aren't getting any more a/c in he near furture and there aren't spare planes sitting around. The 2nd HKG goes daily in december so the a/c has to come from somewhere. They have already put most of the new york flights on smaller a/c due to over-capacity on the route, so makes sense to lose one of the JFKs and the vs 25 is usually the quietest.

The VS 25 is definitly stopping as of 26th October

Originally posted by virginboy747
Well they certainly aren't getting any more a/c in he near furture and there aren't spare planes sitting around.

I thought VS have another six 346's on order due to be deilivered 2008-2009?

No they have been cancelled. the next new a/c will be the 787s

Originally posted by virginboy747
The VS 25 is definitly stopping as of 26th October

Well I am still flabbergasted. The VS025 is operated with a 346 and the VS009 a 343, so which would you change ... let alone the early morning JFK-LHR and EWR-LHR which are often (always) fairly empty so why not drop those ... I fly the 25 a lot and it is usually fairly busy plus it gets into New York in time for dinner while giving a good day's work in London. As a business flyer, I think this is a really really poor step by VS and a big no no. Actually it is a change that is likely to see me flying with BA instead who have options at the same time.

[Neil]

I guess whilst they are cancelling the VS25 in name/number they might re-jig the schedules like they did early last year and move the 9 into the 25 slot but still called the 9. The secondly daily HKG is due to depart at 16:00 the same time as the 9 currently departs, so VS will need to free up a slot for it. Also there is a flight to EWR at 16:00, so it does seem strange to keep departing at the exact same time to NYC area and then nothing at 18:00.

The VS 9 has been scheduled slightly later with a 16:50 departure, and the HKG is taking the earlier slot of 16:00

Blimey Neil! Have you got this weeks Lotto numbers while you're at it?!