TOPIC:

Don't wish to get off topic. But said airline doesn't know the meaning of the words social distancing either. From what we all heard the other day. Not sure if it's just me, but there seems to be different rules for different folks.

It's hard to feel sympathy for airlines who are willing to bend us over at any chance and I can guarantee you when borders are open again there will be huge demand and Qantas and Virgin and whoever will bend us over again.

But reality is we all love to get on the big bird and fly to far away places so we need the bastards. Personally I don't mind the government lending Virgin a hand as long as there are strict conditions. They have been trading at a loss for some time so not sure what's going on there but I don't want to see some fucking Indonesian/Malaysian airline like Lion Air or Air Asia muscle in on our domestic market. Will only be a matter of time before we have our first major domestic airline catastrophe.

Stand the Test wrote: Study your history DD. We all used to own telecom, and made a nice little profit out of too, until Howard decided we needed more competition so he gave half the profit to , wait for it, the Singaporean government!!!
Put your glasses down mate the Singapore Airlines deal has been done.

Perhaps it's you STT who needs to study the history.. Just called a mate who said Paul Keating started the Telstra selloff by getting assets collated. It was called Privatization or "we dont have any money".

DD wrote: It's hard to feel sympathy for airlines who are willing to bend us over at any chance and I can guarantee you when borders are open again there will be huge demand and Qantas and Virgin and whoever will bend us over again.

But reality is we all love to get on the big bird and fly to far away places so we need the bastards. Personally I don't mind the government lending Virgin a hand as long as there are strict conditions. They have been trading at a loss for some time so not sure what's going on there but I don't want to see some fucking Indonesian/Malaysian airline like Lion Air or Air Asia muscle in on our domestic market. Will only be a matter of time before we have our first major domestic airline catastrophe.

The other thing DD is that airfares will probably double when flying is allowed again due to social distancing rules meaning they'll only be allowed to sell half their seats.

BC wrote:

DD wrote: It's hard to feel sympathy for airlines who are willing to bend us over at any chance and I can guarantee you when borders are open again there will be huge demand and Qantas and Virgin and whoever will bend us over again.

But reality is we all love to get on the big bird and fly to far away places so we need the bastards. Personally I don't mind the government lending Virgin a hand as long as there are strict conditions. They have been trading at a loss for some time so not sure what's going on there but I don't want to see some fucking Indonesian/Malaysian airline like Lion Air or Air Asia muscle in on our domestic market. Will only be a matter of time before we have our first major domestic airline catastrophe.

The other thing DD is that airfares will probably double when flying is allowed again due to social distancing rules meaning they'll only be allowed to sell half their seats.

It's already happening on FIFO flights BC and you can start getting used to hugely reduced crowd capacity at AFL matches next year at least. How that will work will be interesting.

If they decide for instance to reduce capacity by 50% do they have a computer generated ballot to see who are the lucky ones or do they say you only get to go to every second home game?


The WHO and China have a bloody lot to answer for.

Yes exactly. Permanent changes are already being made by the airlines courtesy of the virus. Currently there have been approx 70 inbound flights to Perth carrying suspect passengers. The airlines will now permanently change their boarding procedures, which is a good thing. The social distancing on all public forms of transport will now become a normal part of operation. That means not as many passengers will be boarding. If 3 seats are on one side of the aircraft aisle, the middle seat will be removed or not permitted to be used. And the same on the other side. When flying home last year from holidays, my flight had 3 seats going across on either side and 4 seats going across the centre of the aircraft. Perhaps the airlines will only have 2 seats going across the centre instead of the current 4? At the airport upon checking in, passenger temperature checks will become the norm. All the airlines will be doing the same. I'm sure other changes will be made.
The olden days prior to March of 2020 will soon be l o n g gone and become a distant memory.

stt: quite correct -- I remember voting against the de-nationalising of Quantas at an ALP meeting no less. The same party which nationallised it in the first place. Most people supported a national airline, it was just the ideologues in the two political parties whom were for it. Funny thing is, people in the ALP and the left always defended Hawke for stopping Thatcherism from reaching our beaches -- He, of course, did no such thing. Who was the woman again whom privatised British Airways? Correct me if i am wrong too, but was it not British Airways which bought Quantas?

Qantas will be praying that Dickey’s Virgin Airlines goes guts up. Can you imagine how badly they will screw us?
I came across bit of reading somewhere and I’m sure people here will tell me if it’s crap. Happy to hear your opinion. Dicky wants something like 1.4 billion assistance from the Australian govt, of which they have promised him 200 mill assistance (today’s news). But last year, the UK helped him out with over a billion. Reports say that his personal worth is something like 1.4 bill. If all this is true, why should we help him any further?
Wish I’d kept the article to post it, but I’m sure the Ozfooty reporter (aka js). will set me straight.

With pleasure, 58.

Virgin Group is a minor shareholder (10%) in Virgin Australia.

How much of Virgin Group is owned by Branson is unknown, but it is extremely unlikely to be 100%.

So it is probably a bit of a stretch to say Branson himself has asked for the dosh.

westaussieguy wrote: Yes exactly. Permanent changes are already being made by the airlines courtesy of the virus. Currently there have been approx 70 inbound flights to Perth carrying suspect passengers. The airlines will now permanently change their boarding procedures, which is a good thing. The social distancing on all public forms of transport will now become a normal part of operation. That means not as many passengers will be boarding. If 3 seats are on one side of the aircraft aisle, the middle seat will be removed or not permitted to be used. And the same on the other side. When flying home last year from holidays, my flight had 3 seats going across on either side and 4 seats going across the centre of the aircraft. Perhaps the airlines will only have 2 seats going across the centre instead of the current 4? At the airport upon checking in, passenger temperature checks will become the norm. All the airlines will be doing the same. I'm sure other changes will be made.
The olden days prior to March of 2020 will soon be l o n g gone and become a distant memory.

I think things will get back to normal eventually but might take 2 or 3 years. Demand will dictate it. Airlines will go broke if they have to reduce capacity by half and charge double because fewer people will be able to afford it.

And governments worldwide will want to see capacity back to pre Covid-19 levels or everyone will go broke. But there will be new procedures and it wouldn’t hurt if they made seats a bit wider and the seat pitch a bit longer.