Virgin Australia has just taken delivery of its first Boeing 737 MAX. The airline is now showing off the interiors of these jets, and has revealed that existing aircraft will be reconfigured as well. Let’s go over all the details.
Continue reading: Virgin Australia Adds Boeing 737 MAX To Fleet, Reveals New Interiors
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“ What’s also exciting is that starting in late 2023, Virgin Australia plans to reconfigure its entire Boeing 737 fleet with these new cabins. That project is expected to take around two hours.”
Surely you mean two years?
Kinda depressing how far they’ve fallen from the airline which flew 77Ws to the USA
Ben I am having a really hard time following your latest and recent trip reports as that side bar down the side of each review which tells me where it falls in the trip report and different reviews prior etc. Please fix this as I want to easily be able to follow as otherwise I might miss reviews and not read them.
So everyone sitting in the front of the plane is visible to the poors in the back?
What is the world coming to?!
I was under the impressing from Australian blogs that a cabin divider is being added at a later date and would come with the new MAX aircraft. The lack of divider seems to be confirmed by that YouTube video however. Not sure what made them go with that as it does make the business class look cheap and more like economy+
"While that's a long flight for a regionally aircraft..."
Shouldn't it say "regionally-configured aircraft”?
Looking at their spreadsheet, back when they were flying 77Ws to the USA, was likely even more depressing.
So is this the same business class seat they will use for their 8 hour flights to Japan?
The private equity owners of Virgin Australia are about to sell it so you can discount any announcements which involve spending new money. But the CEO herself has promised a new cabin-divider is in development for the 737Max.
The competition between Cairns and Japan is Jetstar who also offer a recliner seat in business class, and the same knees-by-your-ears pitch as Virgin in economy for the 8 hour flight.
BTW the private equity people have already paid themselves more dividends than what they originally paid for the airline so they effectively got it for free. Whatever it fetches now is just cream on the deal.
2A and 2F were the best seats on current 738s due to that divider. The only reason I can think of to entertain removing it, even in the trial cabin, is saving weight costs.
Same thing if I were in the front of economy, I don't particularly enjoy the feeling of staring down the back of the J seat, for both occupants' sake.
It's their decision of course, but IMO it is very shortsighted to lock into a recliner in Business on their Cairns to Tokyo, rather than a flat-bed. Comparing VA to Jetstar (on this route) is like comparing Spirit to Frontier.
Recliners with footrests etc. are great for kids, dwarfs and leprechans, but useless for anyone of more than average height.
Sorry, but I'll be sticking with premium airlines ANA and JAL for my Japan travel.
Oh whoops, I see it is now on the top of the page with an option to click 'more from this trip' to see the reviews in order - my bad.
Having travelled several times on the CNS-NRT route I’d always go with the Jetstar 787 option - no matter that the aircraft is brand new - over 7 hours in a narrow bodied jet is just not something I personally would want to do.
That's great, but neither ANA nor JAL fly to Cairns.
As Ben notes, it's a tourism-driven route, with very little business or freight, so the aircraft choice needs to reflect that market.
LAX did last for the whole duration of Long Haul: 2008 to 2020, and it was reportedly the only long haul destination making revenue, although costs were split with their former partner DL (VA/DL's LAX operations alone couldn't prop up the other loss making long haul destinations and they had support of their other former partners ie HKG: HNA, AUH: EY, etc)