Quokkas From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (3 months 3 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 3123 times:
Last October Virgin Australia announced its intention of buying Western Australian regional airline Skywest (XR) in a deal said to be worth $98 million. It has been announced that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has cleared the deal, saying it was unlikely to lead to a substantial lessening of competition
On some of the affected routes VA and XR already operate on a code share basis - for example VA sell PER-KNX but the flight is actually operated by XR. In eastern Australia XR operate some routes for VA with aircraft sporting the VA livery - for example CBR-SYD using the ATR.
The ACCC considered the possible effect on competition, concluding that the routes operated by both airlines were complimentary rather than in direct competition and that there would be no adverse result on remaining operators like QF, etc, meaning passengers would not be disadvantaged.
Although Skywest mainly serves the Western Australian market, including the lucrative fifo mining sector, it is incorporated in Singapore. The Singaporean gave the deal the nod six weeks ago but there are a couple of steps to go before the deal can be finalised - Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board, Singapore's High Court and Skywest shareholders still have to approve the acquisition.
While this consolidation may lead to efficiencies and appears a good result for shareholders, it will be a shame to see the XR livery disappear from the local scene.
CXfirst From Norway, joined Jan 2007, 2694 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (3 months 3 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 2678 times:
I wonder how this will affect terminal space.
Skywest are moving to the new Terminal 2 in PER, while Virgin stay at T3, until their new pier goes.
If Skywest merges right into VA, with livery and all (so to customers it is one big carrier), will VA move all WA departures (KTA, PHE, BME) to T2, in order to make all WA services go from there, or will there be some other split? I guess they could keep the separation as it is (F50 and F100 services to go from T2), but I think that may just confuse pax a bit too much, assuming XR gets folded into VA.
KTA, PHE and BME do make a significant portion of VA daily departures, so a change of those services to T2 would be a significant increase in passengers (and a decrease from T3/new pier).
Also, does anybody know the rough time frame of XR integration?
Flyingsottsman From Australia, joined Oct 2010, 396 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (3 months 3 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 2516 times:
Shame to see Skywest go, and what did SRB say when he started up Virgin Blue in 2000, he wanted to brake the monopoly of QF and the then Ansett, and there goes Skywest into VA. Will they still keep the Perth/Kalghoolie/Melbourne service going?
Sandgroper From Australia, joined Mar 2008, 53 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (3 months 3 weeks 10 hours ago) and read 2472 times:
Yes it will be a shame if the Skywest brand will go but Virgin have been a very important carrier after the Ansett demise to offer competition in our market place.
We have already seen new branded Virgin ATR 72-600 servicing the regional airports and hopefully they may replace the sad old Skywest F50 (smelling of vomit when you first board) that really are too slow for the really long for 3 hour flights to Onslow or 1.5 hours to Esperance.
Perth Airport is the fastest growing airport in the Western world with FIFO and tourism. We offer 45% of Australians GDP with only 10% of the population with a state bigger that Texas.
Virgin want part of this action, and will deliver.
Sandgroper From Australia, joined Mar 2008, 53 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (3 months 2 weeks 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 1859 times:
Sadly listening to an interview today with "The Australian" Aviation Editor on Radio 6PR here in Perth 17 employees have been made redundant today with a company re-structure.
They also mentioned that the Skywest branding will continue which we have all heard before with takeovers.
It would seem a bit of an oddity if XR gets integrated fully into VA (livery and all), and it that case I would wager it is a goner. However, if XR stays separate at all, there might be some room for it, but time will tell.
It's quite an old bird (with a lot of previous Airlines behind its use), so don't know what the financial situation is around it. Is it easy to sell? How often and expensive is maintenance? Perhaps, someone else knows a bit more about this.
CXfirst From Norway, joined Jan 2007, 2694 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (3 months 2 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 916 times:
The CEO message from John Burghetti is that Skywest will operate under it's own management, AOC and branding after the takeover. Also, the partnership (codesharing, etc.) will be expanded further.
However, one never knows what the ultimate plan is. Down the track, XR might be completely absorbed in, but that is for us to see.
Skywest does see a few QF transfer passengers (about as much as VA). I don't know if it is all passengers with one ticket, or just bags being interlined, but if it is the former, I wonder if that will continue at all after the takeover.
Quote: Virgin chief executive John Borghetti welcomed the ACCC's clearance as an "important step" in the completion of the deal which will see Skywest take on the Virgin brand but retain its current Air Operator's Certificate and its own management team based in Western Australia.
This suggests that the Skywest livery will disappear even while a two-company structure may remain. The wording is slightly different to Virgin's media release which states
Quote: Under the agreement, Skywest would become part of the Virgin Australia brand but would continue to operate under its current Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) with its own management team, based in Western Australia.
The word chosen in each instance is "brand" and not group or business, so I think we will see the lens flare disappear and the Virgin logo replace it.
RyanairGuru From Australia, joined Oct 2006, 2506 posts, RR: 2 Reply 13, posted (3 months 2 weeks 18 hours ago) and read 692 times:
Quoting Quokkas (Reply 12): This suggests that the Skywest livery will disappear even while a two-company structure may remain. The wording is slightly different to Virgin's media release which states
This is what I think the most likely outcome is going to be, with the WA operations being "branded" the same as the East Coast ATRs: VA titles but with "operated by Skywest" painted on the side, very much like the situation in the USA. The Skywest "brand" (ie blue and white star + blue writing) might be retained, but that doesn't mean that the Skywest livery will.
eaglefarm4 From Australia, joined Jul 2011, 294 posts, RR: 1 Reply 14, posted (3 months 2 weeks 17 hours ago) and read 628 times:
All Skywest aircraft will be branded into Virgin Australia livery.This has been mentioned on several occasions and is well known internally to be the case.
I can't quite access what I read at the moment, but I may have misunderstood (my summary of what was said was from memory). I'm now starting to doubt myself, but I'll check again when I have the chance.
Personally, I found what I read to be odd, and expected branding to disappear with planes ending up much like the ATR's.
However, if Skywest was to adopt the livery of VA, I wonder how long it would take to have all the aircraft painted. Virgin aren't exactly accelerating through their Virgin Blue repaints.
As of know, If I'm not mistaken, only ZPR and ZPT of the E190's are in new livery (of which neither ever were in Virgin Blue livery). Of the 737's, the -YF*, -YV* and -YI* series are in new livery (all delivered post-transition or in white), so is VH-VUZ and VH-VUY (never were in the old livery). The only 2 737's I can think of from the top of my head that have been painted from the old to new are VH-VUF and VH-VUG. And of course the A330's are in the new livery. Now, if I'm correct, that is a very slow transition, which I find odd, seeing as VA want to leave the LCC image that was DY.
Sponsor Message: 
From , joined Dec 1969, posts, 
From Norway, joined Jan 2007, 2694 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
