Virgin Australia: daily Brisbane-Los Angeles flights from Sunday

Hi am,

Cheers for the pick-up – on the Airbus A330s that fly to Perth, the new business class seats are indeed replacing angled lie-flat bets, although on the Boeing 777s, they do replace beds that are already fully-flat.

-Chris

Looks like we'll need to reset the 'Revive SFO' clock to zero.

why??

im referring to markpk

Clearly I'm raising the whole no service to SFO issue too often..!

• SFO is a better airport, 
• Has similar or equivalent connections to the rest of America, 
• Any opportunity to avoid LAX should be taken advantage of...

And if we have time we could also discuss the lack of Qantas A380 services ex-BNE as well!

Nope. American (QF's joint venture partner) only has a fraction of the connections out of SFO that it has out of LAX. That'd be why they moved to DFW.

United and Virgin America are far and away the two biggest airlines out of SFO, which is why United and Air New Zealand fly to SFO, and Qantas doesn't. The connections aren't there for Qantas.

so why is it QFs responsibility to fly to SFO...and not VAs???  so VA starts daily BNE-LAX flights...and you then in an instant you whinge QF dont fly BNE-SFO..why not burden the new route with VA?

the story is about VAs new daily service BNE-LAX...and it becomes a QF scheduling issue out of BNE...QF now gets blamed for other airlines' decisions...lol

UTR,

The story goes on to compare the service offering for both VA and QF - maybe I could have framed my comment in this light...however I merely raised the point (which I framed as a personal wish, not a whinge) that it would be good if QF included SFO in their route network - in fact, I'd be happy if either or both VA or QF offered LAX alternatives  for Brisbane based travellers. 

If anyone should be whinging its VA's loyal customers given the upgrade to service and frequency lacks imagination. They are merely reacting to QF when they could have seized the initiative and really tapped into the corporate traveller market who are more likely to be heading to SFO to get to Silicon Valley or onto east coast ports. 

it's nice to finally read the real reason.. most airlines are businesses that are integrated with other  airlines/businesses who are all in  it to make profits..at the moment a BNE-SFO isnt viable for any airline... I constantly read 'twits'...ooops tweets from people wish an airline would fly from A-B because they will or know of friends/many people who would fly the route...but will they, or those friends/people fly the route every day the airline flys that route, to sustain a profit for the airline??

Not following you UTR...

Are you suggesting that because I need to travel to SFO/Silicon Valley that I'm asking an airline to do something unprofitable? 

I've suggested elsewhere on AusBT that much of the route planning for Australian carriers to the US is bogged down in LAX-centric network obligations - clearly this is important but is it the right answer going forward? (and due credit to QF for their ongoing investment in the route to DFW). 

However, a key point here for consideration is that neither QF (to whom I am very loyal) or VA "make routes" - they are laggard followers. If you look at how Emirates builds routes you'll see a replicable model whereby they start servicing a new route with capacity before building this up to become a core part of their hub-and-spoke network - You have to question how Emirates can offer a daily A380 from Brisbane to Dubai, but neither QF or VA can offer a service to SFO as an alternative into the US? 

That is very simple, it is because EK is flying that A380 into its Hub at DXB, where pax then funnel onto its various services in Europe, Asia and Africa and vice versa. VA and QF do not have such a luxury as Australia is an end of the line destination, BNE is certainly no Hub to that scale, its only a domestic Hub, but then again SYD & MEL serves this purpose too and they have more frequencies to Nth America.

I'm not too sure why QF should send A380's to BNE? Does it have too? The refitted 744's already have the same interiors and product offering - theres simply no need. If you really wanted to, you can fly via MEL & SYD.

I can assure you that the next Nth American route from Australia would either be MEL-YVR or MEL-SFO, whatever comes first, but this is atleast 1-2 years away.

The problem with routes to SFO is that the airport is almost completely controlled by United.  The competition would be difficult for either Virgin or Qantas.

VA BNE - SFO: Pros would be the lack of direct competition on the route, however there would be very little feed into Brisbane and only slightly more to/from SFO.

VA or QF SYD - SFO would compete directly with UA on ths route, who have infinitely more feed going into SFO than DL/VX and American, respectively. 

VA flights to SFO would also be completely reliant on connections on Virgin America.  While they are indeed partners, I am not sure how appealing this would be given their joint agreement with Delta.  If VA were to launch a new route to the states, it might make more sense to do SYD - SEA.  The tech sector in SEA could provide similar traffic as SFO, with great Delta connections as well as no competition on the route. 

But I am allowed to dream right? 

Clearly an additional issue is the state of the QF lounges in BNE - Neither has seen any love for over 10years and the both struggle to manage the morning peak of QF and partner customers!

I must say, the idea of a Sydney to Seattle nonstop to gain feed ex-SEA on DL is actually not a bad idea at all.