How Virgin aims to win back business travellers, corporate flyers

Absolutely, as long as these fares remain so competitive Virgin has a solid case to make for being the best value for business travellers on a budget, and these days that's just about all of us!

If they maintain the current fare structure and deliver the traditionally SUPERIOR inflight cabin service, they're gonna need more than just eight (8) business class seats on their planes.  Add in the likely recovery of SME segment with the 'special lounge', they might find even 3 rows isn't enough.  A nice problem to have.  

The economy class menu is terrible

It'll be disappointing if they do give up on LAX, especially considering that DL only serve SYD, leaving BNE to QF and MEL to QF & UA for the direct flights.

I think we would see Delta take on BNE-LAX, maybe not daily but certainly 4-5x per week.

I think adelaide-lax could be a profitable route

You're right, I have NO idea why Qantas and Virgin didn't launch Adelaide-LAX years ago, and of course Delta and United must also be chomping at the bit to begin ADL-LAX flights /S

While we're at it, lets start DRW-LAX, or TSV-LAX, or OOL-LAX...

ADL-MEL-LAX  or  ADL-BNE-LAX maybe . . . . 

I suspect Bain has done the numbers and figured out that LAX is simply too hard, too risky, and any financial reward it would get would not be worth carrying on top of the substantial investment and overhead. I can't see AU-US travel being back to pre-COVID days for a few years to come, Virgin may as well just work closer with Delta in a QF-AA style 'joint business venture'.  Delta's A350s are great aircraft, it has a great Delta One business class suite and a decent premium economy. The new DL lounges at LAX are apparently very good and if you are going elsewhere in the US beyond LAX then DL also has very good connections and transfer facilities.

Given the choice of flying MEL-PER-LHR on Qantas, of MEL-LAX-LHR with Virgin Australia and Virgin Atlantic - it was a no brainer to me - LAX every time.  I'm not altogether sure than Delta offer an even comparable business class service between LAX and Australia (compared to Virgin), but they may have lifted their game.  Flew United once (LAX and SFO, never again).  

If VA did get back into servicing LAX, would the A350-1000 be the right metal for the AUS sectors (BNE, SYD and MEL)?  

The Club lounges were completely 'new build' projects. Very refined and with fantastic f&b under Luke Mangan. I'll be very interested to see how Virgin relaunches these lounges and the rumoured 'Velocity VIP' program too. It had a very good chance to create its own spin on a Qantas Platinum One tier and the Qantas Chairmans lounge as well as being a business class lounge.

Virgin's business class menu has featured a pie in the past but it's a bloody good one, and anyway there's a lot more on the menu as well, so you should get something quite decent. Virgin's fares and overall experience definitely makes you think about paying Qantas' fares!

Yeah, I recall is was a truly genuine gourmet pie, not your corner store variety.  

One of the worst meals I ever had flying out of Townsville on QF was a Pie…. I remember thinking a Pie? I’m going to be starving by the time I hit Sydney.

Katsu chicken curry not too long ago!

QF J had also featured Pies and Sausage Rolls in recent times.  Saying that the Pies & Sausage Rolls on both QF and VA aren't of the service-station variety.   As per other other reports, closer to the gourmet types.

If Virgin were to think about it, they should offer a gourmet Kangaroo pie.   Too soon ?

@Boeing-Tragic - With red sauce in the shape of a kangaroo on top. Don't give Branson any ideas their crazy the Virgin UK Marketing Department like wanting to have "Mary Cola" in Australia with the slogan "Be The First". Mary got knocked back quick smart by us Aussies.

I wouldn't say Virgin is focusing on lounges but as you mentioned it, those five capital cities cover most of the market and certainly most of the business and corporate travel market which is what Virgin is talking about here. You've got the triangle of Brisbane Sydney and Melbourne, plus Canberra and Adelaide, and then Perth for east-west flights. Surely that's maybe 80% of business and corporate flying. Does Virgin need to have lounges in lots of regional centres, and could it see enough business and corporate flying to justfiy those? Anyway in regional centres you can turn up at the airport maybe 30 minutes before your flight. Is a lounge that big a deal? If it is then the people who want a lounge there can justify paying more for Qantas. I think Virgin is focusing on being profitable and can afford to lose some passengers who want regional lounges for the sake of not having the overhead of a lounge so they can keep fares low and competitive.

None of that makes any sense, why would anyone turn up to an airport in a regional city any different from a capital city. VA seem as confused as ever, going for a selective part of a market, budget business travelers,  in only selective locations, capital cities, looks like a losing strategy to me.

I think the time will come, and hopefully soon, when Virgin is given a 'use it or lose it' ultimatum. The only way they can use this Haneda slot is to fly it themselves, which might include a leasing arrangement with ANA but not ANA flying it themselves under a straight VA codeshare.

That will be handy for Qantas, as it wanted both the HND slots that were allocated to Australia.

I agree with much of what you've said, except for the bit about Qantas needing to merge QF and JQ into one brand. Why on earth would they do that?? Both brands are proven winners, and they are very very different.

I think Virgin will continue to steal price-concsious passengers away from Qantas, which is how they have won my business, and also will pick up some Jetstar passengers if the price is right too. Rex will be squeezed between Jetstar and Virgin. Virgin is in a really strong position right now and it just needs to keep its focus on doing its own thing, as others have commented here.

@Tony Boyd, Why they need to join Jetstar and Qantas is there are routes that only Jetstar fly and not Qantas, your P1, Platinum and Gold are worthless on a Jetstar flight. I've lost count of the stories I've heard from loyalist Qantas supporters being knocked down.

"I've lost my status because Qantas doesn't fly there and I have been flying Jetstar" 15 years ago

"I had patients booked in and Jetstar gave my seat away to a family going on holidays" 10 years ago

"I fly ever day UpUpandAway, one day I was late and tried to push in so I won't miss my flight and they purposely held me up. Qantas doesn't fly there at the time I need to leave" 5 years ago

Another armchair airline CEO who thinks he knows better than Alan Joyce and others who have decades of experience. Yes, merging Qantas and Jetstar would be a brilliant move. Don't know why something so obvious to you hasn't been done yet.

No one has called me an armchair before!! I'd say real world experience and the nickname gold fingers gives me those thoughts. Reminds me of that saying don't believe all you read.....

Yes, because that's the ONLY thing an airline has to do to win corporate customers. PS Try actually making a sensible comment next time, not just taking a lazy swing at how Qantas has treated you.

I agree with nige00160. I missed an important client meeting last week as Qantas rearranged my flight bookings and my only option to get it fixed when "computer says no" was to wait on hold for 2 hours to speak with someone to fix it.  I know I'm just one person, but this type of experience now seems to increasingly be the 'norm' for Qantas.   You only need to look at the number of similar comments posted by numerous travelers posted on this website and others to see this is an issue with the airlines customer service.