Re: Countrylink looking up again

["Dave Proctor" <david@sd3.mailbank.com>]

"Al" <alpout@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message
3aef5f7f$0$25483$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au">news:3aef5f7f$0$25483$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au...

> From the SMH this morning "But the low-cost competitor, Virgin Blue,
insisted
> last night it would continue to expand services and offer a range of cheap
fli
> ghts, although it could be a year before it was able to battle on the main
> Sydney-Melbourne route."
>
> For one thing, they need planes.  If they had enough to add the route
straight
> away, that would be excess capacity that would be sitting around costing
them
> a pile.

Nobody said "straight away" - but the new aircraft will be coming online
fairly quickly. And they themselves said that they will be expanding routes,
requiring new aircraft, which is the reason (according to you) that they
can't start up SYD-MEL any time soon.

> OK, they have 14 new 737's coming, but it takes Boeing a bit longer
> to put a plane together than Holden does a car.

And the first has arrived and the second is due any day now (may already be
here). These aircraft were ordered ages ago and are in various stages of
construction.

There is also the leasing market, which is where Virgin Blue got their first
batch of 737's from, and where Ansett is able to get hold of 767's at
reasonably short notice.

There are also a number of "white tail" aircraft sitting around doing
nothing.

> Secondly, don't you think
> they'll analyse what went wrong with Impulse on the Sydney-Melbourne route
and
> make sure they don't make the same mistakes?
>
> And with the ownership of various airlines, how about Impulse = Qantas
Lite,
> and Virgin = Diet Ansett?

None of which means that Countrylink can afford to sit back and be
complacent about future ridership.

Dave