First ex-SilkAir 737 (was 9V-MGI) now in VA colors as VH-IWQ. I assume she still has to have its interior changed to VA standard in BNE. Interestingly, it looks like there is no name for her as yet.

Sorry Alan,

Adelaide Perth is 70 bucks more expensive one way that pre covid

Very interested to see how QF, VA, Rex etc will respond to the (potentiallly based on percent vaccinated) lessening of restrictions for interstate arrivals into Queensland. Still bummed though to see 14 days of home quarantine for international arrivals for the forseeable future (goal appears to be 90% vaccinated). Feel somewhat bad for the airline planners due to the uncertainty.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-18/ ... /100547720

The QLD border decision for domestic travel quarantine free from Dec 17 sets us up for a proper recovery of the domestic markets from the end of the year. Expect all states but NT and WA to be open for vaccinated travelers by Christmas. Everyones focused on the international market but it will be the domestic market where the real boom will happen initally.

log0008 wrote:

The QLD border decision for domestic travel quarantine free from Dec 17 sets us up for a proper recovery of the domestic markets from the end of the year. Expect all states but NT and WA to be open for vaccinated travelers by Christmas. Everyones focused on the international market but it will be the domestic market where the real boom will happen initally.

You'd think so but some people may still be a bit leery about heading to Queensland unless they can guarantee that there will be no more lock-outs or forced quarantining of those who have already arrived.

tullamarine wrote:

log0008 wrote:

The QLD border decision for domestic travel quarantine free from Dec 17 sets us up for a proper recovery of the domestic markets from the end of the year. Expect all states but NT and WA to be open for vaccinated travelers by Christmas. Everyones focused on the international market but it will be the domestic market where the real boom will happen initally.

You'd think so but some people may still be a bit leery about heading to Queensland unless they can guarantee that there will be no more lock-outs or forced quarantining of those who have already arrived.

QLD has made it quite firm today, the 17th not later, however, it could go fwd. Leaders aren't stupid. Once you've set vaccine-related goals your committing political suicide if you don't follow them.

It's likely the Qld timelines announced today could probably be brought forward a week or two based on numbers across the other sites.

The Qld Government may possibly be 'underestimating' the target vax rates deliberately, considering numerous unofficial sources has a early/mid Nov date for 70% and late Nov/early Dec date for 80%

tullamarine wrote:

First ex-SilkAir 737 (was 9V-MGI) now in VA colors as VH-IWQ. I assume she still has to have its interior changed to VA standard in BNE. Interestingly, it looks like there is no name for her as yet.

IWQ and IJQ will retain the SilkAir seats. Seat-back power in economy will be deactivated initially. They will have wireless IFE like the rest of the fleet.

tullamarine wrote:

First ex-SilkAir 737 (was 9V-MGI) now in VA colors as VH-IWQ. I assume she still has to have its interior changed to VA standard in BNE. Interestingly, it looks like there is no name for her as yet.

Did they just paint the tail and add decals? There’s a noticeable difference in the white on the tail section and the rest of the aircraft, which also features quite a few dirt and weather marks.

She was completely repainted. The 'dirt' you're talking about on the bottom are stringers. These are structural and are visable on all aircraft from certain angles. You can also see the different colour of the tail is due to the light also - the sun reflection on the top right of the V shows the whole tail is facing more direct sunlight than the rest of the aircraft. You can see this same lighting gradient on the engines.

VHOGU wrote:

tullamarine wrote:

First ex-SilkAir 737 (was 9V-MGI) now in VA colors as VH-IWQ. I assume she still has to have its interior changed to VA standard in BNE. Interestingly, it looks like there is no name for her as yet.

IWQ and IJQ will retain the SilkAir seats. Seat-back power in economy will be deactivated initially. They will have wireless IFE like the rest of the fleet.

Many articles are suggesting that the VA seats from the 737s returned to the lessor (and won't be returning to VA) has been removed from the returned jets and will be refitted on the ex-SilkAir jets eventually.

a320fan wrote:

tullamarine wrote:

First ex-SilkAir 737 (was 9V-MGI) now in VA colors as VH-IWQ. I assume she still has to have its interior changed to VA standard in BNE. Interestingly, it looks like there is no name for her as yet.

Did they just paint the tail and add decals? There’s a noticeable difference in the white on the tail section and the rest of the aircraft, which also features quite a few dirt and weather marks.

It definitely looks like that. The lines between the titles/decals are very distinct, and the white around these titles and decals are obviously whiter. Even looking under the fuselage behind the nose gear, there is substantial build up of dirt. I'm sure that hasn't built up between repaint and arrival in BNE.

log0008 wrote:

tullamarine wrote:

log0008 wrote:

The QLD border decision for domestic travel quarantine free from Dec 17 sets us up for a proper recovery of the domestic markets from the end of the year. Expect all states but NT and WA to be open for vaccinated travelers by Christmas. Everyones focused on the international market but it will be the domestic market where the real boom will happen initally.

You'd think so but some people may still be a bit leery about heading to Queensland unless they can guarantee that there will be no more lock-outs or forced quarantining of those who have already arrived.

QLD has made it quite firm today, the 17th not later, however, it could go fwd. Leaders aren't stupid. Once you've set vaccine-related goals your committing political suicide if you don't follow them.

It’s actually very smart on all accounts.

It gives interstate arrivals and tourism operators (don’t forget, tourism is the single largest employer in QLD) some certainty on Christmas and school holidays.

It also gives the ‘complacent’ there’s-no-Covid-here-so-why-should-I-bother-getting-vaccinated two months notice to get vabbed. Rather than anti-vax per se, this complacency factor is an issue in both QLD and WA. Setting a date when people from Sydney and Melbourne will be streaming in is the best way to give them a kick up the backside.

RyanairGuru wrote:

It’s actually very smart on all accounts.

It gives interstate arrivals and tourism operators (don’t forget, tourism is the single largest employer in QLD) some certainty on Christmas and school holidays.

It also gives the ‘complacent’ there’s-no-Covid-here-so-why-should-I-bother-getting-vaccinated two months notice to get vabbed. Rather than anti-vax per se, this complacency factor is an issue in both QLD and WA. Setting a date when people from Sydney and Melbourne will be streaming in is the best way to give them a kick up the backside.

Whilst it pains me to say it, I actually agree - I think it is a smart approach by the QLD govt and does give all industries significant certainty.

Qf648 wrote:

Sorry Alan,

Adelaide Perth is 70 bucks more expensive one way that pre covid

Before airline deregulation in the late 1980s (?) many of us would catch the train or the Greyhound bus intrastate / interstate.

Let us hope we don't get back there!

Another reason I think demand will exceed supply is on the supply side. It will be a while before SQ and CX are back up to 4, 5 frequencies a day into the Aussie capitals. Supply will be constrained for a while. QF was only a fraction of the supply ex Australia pre pandemic.

Demand will be high, and very high during the holidays. Business demand will be limited for a long time.

redroo wrote:

Another reason I think demand will exceed supply is on the supply side. It will be a while before SQ and CX are back up to 4, 5 frequencies a day into the Aussie capitals. Supply will be constrained for a while. QF was only a fraction of the supply ex Australia pre pandemic.

Demand will be high, and very high during the holidays. Business demand will be limited for a long time.

SQ will be moving to 17 services a week to SYD immediately. They are already operating these services but only 10 had pax and even then it was only about 25 seats per plane. Obviously, like QF, services to other ports will come back more slowly depending on the quarantine arrangements.

UA has been operating throughout the pandemic and are upgauging to 77Ws on its SYD services from LAX and SFO from 1/11. DL and AA will immediately make all their seats on their daily services available to SYD.

The ME3 have operated throughout the pandemic and will immediately start selling all the seats they are allowed. Once again, this will be SYD first with other ports following depending on quarantine restrictions. I assume airlines such as JL, MH and CX will be similar though HKG is being very restrictive so they will take longer as there isn't any transit through HKG as yet. Chinese airlines won't return to pax services for a while but there is basically no demand for China either at the moment.

I think QF will benefit a bit from people wanting direct flights and having an Aussie airline. If rules change again you've got more chance of getting a refund out of an Australian company. Especially with London, I expect people to prefer the direct service if possible. Transitting adds additional complexities for a while re-testing etc.

tullamarine wrote:

redroo wrote:

Another reason I think demand will exceed supply is on the supply side. It will be a while before SQ and CX are back up to 4, 5 frequencies a day into the Aussie capitals. Supply will be constrained for a while. QF was only a fraction of the supply ex Australia pre pandemic.

Demand will be high, and very high during the holidays. Business demand will be limited for a long time.

SQ will be moving to 17 services a week to SYD immediately. They are already operating these services but only 10 had pax and even then it was only about 25 seats per plane. Obviously, like QF, services to other ports will come back more slowly depending on the quarantine arrangements.

UA has been operating throughout the pandemic and are upgauging to 77Ws on its SYD services from LAX and SFO from 1/11. DL and AA will immediately make all their seats on their daily services available to SYD.

The ME3 have operated throughout the pandemic and will immediately start selling all the seats they are allowed. Once again, this will be SYD first with other ports following depending on quarantine restrictions. I assume airlines such as JL, MH and CX will be similar though HKG is being very restrictive so they will take longer as there isn't any transit through HKG as yet. Chinese airlines won't return to pax services for a while but there is basically no demand for China either at the moment.

While I agree that CX won’t bounce back right away in the same way that SQ did, as Hong Kong SAR is still closed to most international arrivals and is generally being more conservative than Singapore, I’m confused by your comment about transit. My step-mother flew SYD-HKG-LHR with CX three weeks ago, no issues at all with transiting through HKG.

RyanairGuru wrote:

tullamarine wrote:

redroo wrote:

While I agree that CX won’t bounce back right away in the same way that SQ did, as Hong Kong SAR is still closed to most international arrivals and is generally being more conservative than Singapore, I’m confused by your comment about transit. My step-mother flew SYD-HKG-LHR with CX three weeks ago, no issues at all with transiting through HKG.

Transiting through HKG is easy. Getting in is different.

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_MY/ ... tions.html

cskok8 wrote:

RyanairGuru wrote:

tullamarine wrote:

Transiting through HKG is easy. Getting in is different.

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_MY/ ... tions.html

That makes sense. I knew HKSAR had very restrictive entry and quarantine restrictions, but the comment I was responding to said that there wasn’t any transit through HKG, which is what I was querying.

Given how expensive and troublesome it is to go overseas at the moment if people just want to have a vacation I think most would still travel domestically. (Just my 2 cents)
Can't wait to see the domestic terminal booming again.

a19901213 wrote:

Given how expensive and troublesome it is to go overseas at the moment if people just want to have a vacation I think most would still travel domestically. (Just my 2 cents)
Can't wait to see the domestic terminal booming again.

I’ve just booked Fiji over Christmas. Am curious to see how it goes. In Queensland so almost definitely going to be quarantine at home for longer than I will be overseas for.
But I expect now that there’s a level of certainty, international travel will get popular quick.

VHOGU wrote:

tullamarine wrote:

First ex-SilkAir 737 (was 9V-MGI) now in VA colors as VH-IWQ. I assume she still has to have its interior changed to VA standard in BNE. Interestingly, it looks like there is no name for her as yet.

IWQ and IJQ will retain the SilkAir seats. Seat-back power in economy will be deactivated initially. They will have wireless IFE like the rest of the fleet.

The MI seats will be removed and replaced with new VA seats prior to entering service.

BNEFlyer wrote:

The MI seats will be removed and replaced with new VA seats prior to entering service.

Have these ex-MI aircraft got BSI?

I've never flown on an MI 737 but have plenty on the 319/320's which were pretty tired inside with horribly uncomfortable seats so good they are getting swapped out. The service was always impeccable though

Velocity7 wrote:

BNEFlyer wrote:

The MI seats will be removed and replaced with new VA seats prior to entering service.

Have these ex-MI aircraft got BSI?

I've never flown on an MI 737 but have plenty on the 319/320's which were pretty tired inside with horribly uncomfortable seats so good they are getting swapped out. The service was always impeccable though

The ex MI/SQ aircraft would've been delivered between 2014 and 2015, so I would assume they heave BSI. Roughly 6-7 years old.

SCFlyer wrote:

Velocity7 wrote:

BNEFlyer wrote:

The MI seats will be removed and replaced with new VA seats prior to entering service.

Have these ex-MI aircraft got BSI?

I've never flown on an MI 737 but have plenty on the 319/320's which were pretty tired inside with horribly uncomfortable seats so good they are getting swapped out. The service was always impeccable though

The ex MI/SQ aircraft would've been delivered between 2014 and 2015, so I would assume they heave BSI. Roughly 6-7 years old.

All the ex-MI 737-800s have the BSI cabin.

Velocity7 wrote:

BNEFlyer wrote:

The MI seats will be removed and replaced with new VA seats prior to entering service.

Have these ex-MI aircraft got BSI?

I've never flown on an MI 737 but have plenty on the 319/320's which were pretty tired inside with horribly uncomfortable seats so good they are getting swapped out. The service was always impeccable though

BSI was introduced in 2010 but remained optional until about 2015. Since then, I believe all new 737NGs were delivered with BSI. At one point I think VA were receiving newbuilds concurrently, some with old interior (final VU* deliveries) and some with BSI (first of YI*) series.

a19901213 wrote:

Given how expensive and troublesome it is to go overseas at the moment if people just want to have a vacation I think most would still travel domestically. (Just my 2 cents)
Can't wait to see the domestic terminal booming again.

Domestic accomodation isn't cheap eiither... some of the prices I've seen are eye watering.

qf789 wrote:

Qantas says it expects to have 100% of pre COVID domestic capacity by January next year. SYD-MEL flights which were 55 flights a day pre COVID and currently operating daily will see around 15 flights a day in the first week of November increasing to 30-40 flights by Christmas

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-ma ... ry-2650316

I personally think SYD-MEL will struggle to get back to pre-covid, its the most corporate heavy market in the country. So many business will never get back to the level of business travel that existed pre-covid. Huge numbers used to travel between the two on day / overnight trips. If there is any requirement for testing forget it.

jrfspa320 wrote:

qf789 wrote:

Qantas says it expects to have 100% of pre COVID domestic capacity by January next year. SYD-MEL flights which were 55 flights a day pre COVID and currently operating daily will see around 15 flights a day in the first week of November increasing to 30-40 flights by Christmas

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-ma ... ry-2650316

I personally think SYD-MEL will struggle to get back to pre-covid, its the most corporate heavy market in the country. So many business will never get back to the level of business travel that existed pre-covid. Huge numbers used to travel between the two on day / overnight trips. If there is any requirement for testing forget it.

Victoria has already ditched the test requirement to NSW.

log0008 wrote:

jrfspa320 wrote:

qf789 wrote:

Qantas says it expects to have 100% of pre COVID domestic capacity by January next year. SYD-MEL flights which were 55 flights a day pre COVID and currently operating daily will see around 15 flights a day in the first week of November increasing to 30-40 flights by Christmas

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-ma ... ry-2650316

I personally think SYD-MEL will struggle to get back to pre-covid, its the most corporate heavy market in the country. So many business will never get back to the level of business travel that existed pre-covid. Huge numbers used to travel between the two on day / overnight trips. If there is any requirement for testing forget it.

Victoria has already ditched the test requirement to NSW.

Fair enough thats good news. Looking at Europe and the USA the leisure routes are the ones with the strongest demand. Business heavy routes are still hugely down.

Good to see the confidence from CX and NH to commit to passengers in cabins retaing pretty much the weekly number fo flights currently. CX has been using 77W in the last few weeks for at least some days rather than the A35K. NH has been pretty consistently 789 anyway

Victoria will join NSW is scraping all forms of quarantine from Nov 1.

atal17 wrote:

log0008 wrote:

Victoria will join NSW is scraping all forms of quarantine from Nov 1.

No official confirmation yet - but it is now being reported by the ABC and ET

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news ... travellers

I have some inside information, airlines and Melbourne Airport were briefed this afternoon

atal17 wrote:

log0008 wrote:

Victoria will join NSW is scraping all forms of quarantine from Nov 1.

No official confirmation yet - but it is now being reported by the ABC and ET

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news ... travellers

I assume we will hear officially from Lyell Strambi from Melbourne Airport and the state premier tomorrow. Following that, I'd expect to see QF, SQ, UA etc all make announcements on their ramping up of pax services from as early as 1/11. I was going to SIN for work in January; this may now be late November.

Also published today. QF has published QF12 to depart from LAX at 2100 on 30 Oct to arrive into SYD at 0600 on 01Nov. The plan is to use VH-ZND (Yam Dreaming)

Just seeing now an Air Vanuatu 738 NF904 on its way into HBA from BNE. Assume this is to pick up/fly in Vanuatuans for the fruit picking programme?

BNEFlyer wrote:

VHOGU wrote:

tullamarine wrote:

First ex-SilkAir 737 (was 9V-MGI) now in VA colors as VH-IWQ. I assume she still has to have its interior changed to VA standard in BNE. Interestingly, it looks like there is no name for her as yet.

IWQ and IJQ will retain the SilkAir seats. Seat-back power in economy will be deactivated initially. They will have wireless IFE like the rest of the fleet.

The MI seats will be removed and replaced with new VA seats prior to entering service.

That’s not true. Virgin crew have been briefed on the cabin differences between these aircraft and existing 737’s. They definitely will be entering service with the silkair seats.

Singapore 777 wrote:

SCFlyer wrote:

Velocity7 wrote:

Have these ex-MI aircraft got BSI?

I've never flown on an MI 737 but have plenty on the 319/320's which were pretty tired inside with horribly uncomfortable seats so good they are getting swapped out. The service was always impeccable though

The ex MI/SQ aircraft would've been delivered between 2014 and 2015, so I would assume they heave BSI. Roughly 6-7 years old.

All the ex-MI 737-800s have the BSI cabin.

All are BSI but are configured slightly different. These aircraft have different galleys and an extra control panel.

VHOGU wrote:

BNEFlyer wrote:

VHOGU wrote:

IWQ and IJQ will retain the SilkAir seats. Seat-back power in economy will be deactivated initially. They will have wireless IFE like the rest of the fleet.

The MI seats will be removed and replaced with new VA seats prior to entering service.

That’s not true. Virgin crew have been briefed on the cabin differences between these aircraft and existing 737’s. They definitely will be entering service with the silkair seats.

Bonus for the J passengers then, with the slightly better J seat in the MI 738 fleet.

zkncj wrote:

VHOGU wrote:

BNEFlyer wrote:

The MI seats will be removed and replaced with new VA seats prior to entering service.

That’s not true. Virgin crew have been briefed on the cabin differences between these aircraft and existing 737’s. They definitely will be entering service with the silkair seats.

Bonus for the J passengers then, with the slightly better J seat in the MI 738 fleet.

What is different/better? Flew MI 738 in J back in Oct 2019 on a short hop between KUL and SIN and it seemed very much the same to me. Maybe a little more legroom and softer seat padding, but otherwise a very similar product.