“ A Virgin Australia Group spokesperson was unable to provide the number of flights cancelled but said the airline is experiencing more demand than before the pandemic began.
"The number of travellers flying with us this school holidays has increased by 15 per cent in comparison to 2019 levels, which is significantly higher than the recent Easter holiday period," they said”
Current domestic pax traffic is between 30 to 50% that of 2019, depending on which stats you are looking.
If VA is experiencing more demand as stated, either there are a lot less JQ and QF flights on offer or priced out of reach or more people voting for VA mark 2.0 (actually 3.0 after Virgin Blue, Virgin Australia), or VA was in serious trouble before 2020.
So what are the facts, is this just spin to explain away the poor capacity unable to come with the surge in demand now 4-5 months since the free skies?
It's hard to know which stats are accurate, where did you get "Current domestic pax traffic is between 30 to 50% that of 2019, depending on which stats you are looking," from?
BITRE releases monthly stats on the domestic market and the latest docs cover April - https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/domestic-aviation-activity-publication-april-2022.pdf
"There were 4.92 million passengers carried on Australian domestic commercial aviation
(including charter operations) in April 2022, compared to 3.81 million in April 2021 and
5.37 million in pre-COVID April 2019."
Unfortunately the report doesn't break it down by airline.
I think VA has been saying this for few months now. I wonder if this is a way to get people excited about buying their shares when it lists on the ASX. More spin, than truth i would say. Sid, has nailed it with accurate data. Demand is up, but it is not like it has increased more than pre pandemic days. However, they could easily say, they have reduced number of aircrafts now than before, and possibly counting the number of people who are using their site (international included), but comparing against their true aircraft numbers?
Unfortunately the figures from BITRE, generally take a couple months to come out, but looking at the numbers, Brisbane Airport is within about 45-50,000 domestic passengers for June 2020, when compared to June 2019 numbers.
It's hard to know which stats are accurate, where did you get "Current domestic pax traffic is between 30 to 50% that of 2019, depending on which stats you are looking," from?
BITRE releases monthly stats on the domestic market and the latest docs cover April - https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/domestic-aviation-activity-publication-april-2022.pdf
"There were 4.92 million passengers carried on Australian domestic commercial aviation
(including charter operations) in April 2022, compared to 3.81 million in April 2021 and
5.37 million in pre-COVID April 2019."
Unfortunately the report doesn't break it down by airline.
Apologies, it was meant to be “30-50% less than that of 2019” and is based on airport pax numbers not airlines. Hence I wasn’t sure of the claims by VA where they get more pax from, other than taking up the slack from reduced JQ or QF capacity, and it also meant they have to hire more people and metal than pre-collapse if they do want to meet this demand
XWu
XWu
Member since 09 May 2020
Total posts 197
Today’s ABC article stated:
“ A Virgin Australia Group spokesperson was unable to provide the number of flights cancelled but said the airline is experiencing more demand than before the pandemic began.
"The number of travellers flying with us this school holidays has increased by 15 per cent in comparison to 2019 levels, which is significantly higher than the recent Easter holiday period," they said”
Current domestic pax traffic is between 30 to 50% that of 2019, depending on which stats you are looking.
If VA is experiencing more demand as stated, either there are a lot less JQ and QF flights on offer or priced out of reach or more people voting for VA mark 2.0 (actually 3.0 after Virgin Blue, Virgin Australia), or VA was in serious trouble before 2020.
So what are the facts, is this just spin to explain away the poor capacity unable to come with the surge in demand now 4-5 months since the free skies?
sid
sid
Member since 07 Jan 2011
Total posts 208
It's hard to know which stats are accurate, where did you get "Current domestic pax traffic is between 30 to 50% that of 2019, depending on which stats you are looking," from?
BITRE releases monthly stats on the domestic market and the latest docs cover April - https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/domestic-aviation-activity-publication-april-2022.pdf
"There were 4.92 million passengers carried on Australian domestic commercial aviation (including charter operations) in April 2022, compared to 3.81 million in April 2021 and 5.37 million in pre-COVID April 2019."
Unfortunately the report doesn't break it down by airline.
mspcooper
mspcooper
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 09 May 2013
Total posts 457
I think VA has been saying this for few months now. I wonder if this is a way to get people excited about buying their shares when it lists on the ASX. More spin, than truth i would say. Sid, has nailed it with accurate data. Demand is up, but it is not like it has increased more than pre pandemic days. However, they could easily say, they have reduced number of aircrafts now than before, and possibly counting the number of people who are using their site (international included), but comparing against their true aircraft numbers?
Mightyreds
Mightyreds
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 09 Feb 2015
Total posts 72
Unfortunately the figures from BITRE, generally take a couple months to come out, but looking at the numbers, Brisbane Airport is within about 45-50,000 domestic passengers for June 2020, when compared to June 2019 numbers.
XWu
XWu
Member since 09 May 2020
Total posts 197
Originally Posted by sid
It's hard to know which stats are accurate, where did you get "Current domestic pax traffic is between 30 to 50% that of 2019, depending on which stats you are looking," from?
BITRE releases monthly stats on the domestic market and the latest docs cover April - https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/domestic-aviation-activity-publication-april-2022.pdf
"There were 4.92 million passengers carried on Australian domestic commercial aviation (including charter operations) in April 2022, compared to 3.81 million in April 2021 and 5.37 million in pre-COVID April 2019."
Unfortunately the report doesn't break it down by airline.
SimmoOz007
SimmoOz007
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 12 May 2022
Total posts 6
Most Airlines have increased passenger numbers now, there is so much pent-up demand that a lot of people are flying now they can travel freely again.
I'm sure Qantas and Jetstar also have increased passenger numbers right now.
No doubt it'll be back to pre-covid numbers next year.