Virgin slashes capacity

VIRGIN Australia Group has suspended all of its int’l flying from 30 Mar-14 Jun and halved its domestic capacity until 14 Jun in response to increased govt travel restrictions and increased impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak (TD breaking news).

The move follows capacity cuts announced yesterday by Qantas and Air New Zealand

(TD yesterday) and will see the temporary grounding of the equivalent of 53 aircraft from Virgin Australia Group’s fleet.

The carrier said it would work closely with the government to prioritise bringing Australians home and returning visitors back to their point of origin safely.

Virgin Australia will operate a reduced international schedule between now and 29 Mar to enable Australians to return home and visitors to return to their point of origin.

The airline’s Melbourne to Los Angeles services will be suspended from 20 Mar, the Brisbane to Haneda inaugural postponed from 29 Mar and Melbourne to Denpasar inaugural service pushed back from 29 Mar.

Virgin Australia CEO and MD Paul Scurrah said “wherever possible, we will aim to avoid redundancies by fast-tracking measures such as the use of accrued leave, leave without pay and redeployment.

“We are also acutely aware of the important role airlines play in supporting connectivity, tourism and the nation’s economy, and are maintaining most of our domestic routes, and instead reducing frequencies in our schedule,” Scurrah said.

The route and schedule detail of the changes across Virgin Australia and Tigerair Australia is being worked through and will be published over the next week.

In its international fleet, Virgin Australia has grounded five Boeing 777, one Airbus A330 and 14 Boeing 737 aircraft, while in the domestic fleet the carrier has grounded 20 Boeing 737, six A320, two ATR and five Airbus A330 aircraft.

Virgin Australia has also set up a dedicated customer care hub to manage the surge of customer queries and travel changes.