Following on from yesterdays announcement of a strategic alliance with HNA, Virgin Australia has applied to the International Air Service Commission (IASC) to operate daily flights to Hong Kong and Beijing.
While calling out the cities of Hong Kong and Beijing, they have declined to state which Australia city they are planning on flying from. The application simply makes reference to in being an Australian gateway city.
Under the application, the request for capacity to both cities would be fully utilised by June 1, 2017.
According to the application that has been lodged, the daily service to both cities would be serviced by 275 seat A330-200 aircraft. Virgin currently has 6 A330-200 aircraft, which are used primarily on the trans-continental routes between Perth and the east coast cities of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. While It is possible that Virgin could aquire additional A330 aircraft, there has been no announcement about this. One option could be to lease aircraft from its new partner, HNA.
Unless Virgin Australia intends to procure more A330 aircraft, the change will see a more of the transcontinental services move to a 737 based operation.
As part of the process of making a determination, the IASC has given other airlines until June 9 to comment on the application. Following that date, the IASC will advise whether or not it approves the allocation of capacity to Virgin Australia.
