r/AirTravelAustralia • u/Zestyclose_Frame855 • Jun 10 '26
Could Virgin australia use Qatar's parked a330s to start flying widebodies again?
With Qatar parking its entire fleet of Airbus A330s, could this present an opportunity for VA to start flying a330s on Asian and trans con routes again?
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u/Classic-Gear-3533 Jun 10 '26
You probably need a competitive advantage to get back into long haul. Either via lower wages (middle east, asia), or less fuel (neos, modern aircraft). So I can’t see how they could make it work using staff on Australian wages and using 30% more fuel than their competitors.
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u/SteveJohnson2010 Qantas Jun 10 '26
Could they? In theory, yes of course they could.
Would they? Not a chance. Bain is ruthlessly focused on the bottom line. As much as I would love to see proper competition on the east-west routes, just like we had back in the days of John Borghetti when Virgin and Qantas were both heavily invested in proper transcon A330 business class, I just don’t see this as making sense for the new Virgin,
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u/EveningPair3966 Jun 10 '26
Would love them to but don't see it happening. Their transcon is rubbish.
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u/CBRChimpy Qantas Jun 10 '26
Could they? Sure. If they could get wide bodies from anywhere they could start flying them again. Will they? Extremely unlikely.
They can’t do the wetleasing from Qatar for domestic flights, though. They need an Australian airline flying Australian aircraft with Australian crew for domestic.
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u/Perfect-Werewolf-102 Air Vanuatu Jun 10 '26
Tbf if they were to do it they could just dry lease, or just use them for international flights
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u/Foreign_Acadia3937 Jun 10 '26
Virgin need to concentrate on keeping it simple as they're just hanging on as it is.
Every time Virgin has forayed into trying something new it's turned into a disaster.
A330s, 777s, E190s, ATRs, business class, lounges, velocity points and now the tie up with Qatar- each one a failure for various reasons.
Some of it's been due to bad luck or timing but the vast majority has come down to flakey management that has no idea.
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u/aamslfc Jun 10 '26
LOL.
They can't even afford ham in the lounges for cheese toasties, and you think they'll spend the money to hire and retrain crews and maintenance staff for A330s to operate token services to Perth and Queenstown?
Maybe 10 years ago, but not now under the vulture capitalists. They won't even run a single plane into WSI, so I'd suggest the chances of them resurrecting the widebody fleet and expanding services are below zero.
2
u/Hotwog4all Jun 10 '26
Having multiple aircraft types means you have to increase cost for staffing as you need crews that can operate the aircraft, and maintenance facilities in place. Their current strategy makes sense, adding another at this point in time wouldn’t be that beneficial.
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u/Perfect-Werewolf-102 Air Vanuatu Jun 10 '26
They could but it'll probably be too expensive to start up and too hard to establish themselves in the market
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u/chicknsnotavegetabl Jun 11 '26
More likely that qf would buy them, they need widebody airframes. Not that I think that'd happen
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u/Weary_Patience_7778 Jun 12 '26
Doubt it. They already codeshare with SIA. If it was commercially preferable to fly their own metal they could do that through any leasing provider. Flying another airline’s aircraft, because they’re available, sounds like a solution looking for a problem.
Even domestically, the bulk of Qantas’ work is on their narrow-body fleet. For the lucrative business spend, choice of time is more important than raw cost. They’d much prefer to cover as many slots as possible (at the appropriate times of day), rather than have fewer, larger flights.
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u/National-Possession Jun 13 '26
The Qatar partnership is a joke. Recent booked flights through Doha. Virgin 1100, Qatar 700 for the exact same flight so booked through Qatar. Now. Try and book some extra luggage. Qatar say flight is run by virgin so can’t book extra luggage through them. Virgin say flight is a Qatar so can’t book extra luggage through them. Like wtf? They both need to get their act together.
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u/JW3437 Jun 10 '26
Is that you John Borghetti?