Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey, [pictured right with Queensland’s Minister for Tourism Margaret Keech] said yesterday at ATE 2007 that Virgin Blue could set up could set up their own ultra low cost operation within a few months, describing it as an “airline within an airline”.
Mr Godfrey said that Virgin Blue was more up market and it appears would continue to compete with Qantas while the new airline would fly also Boeing 737’s and compete directly with Jetstar and Tiger.
With the decision to be made in a few months, he told The Mole that they were keeping their options open, but that the airline was refocussing, with Virgin Blue load factors over 80% and the upcoming profit announcement potentially of over $180m.
He added that about 30% to 35% of Virgin Blue tickets were sold through agents, but that the agents mainly used the web to do so and that yields rose by 12.9% over the six months to 31 December 2007.
Interestingly he also said that Virgin Blue’s website fares had actually gone right down to $0 yesterday, plus taxes and charges and he doubted fares would fall below that level, unless carriers start giving away bottles of whisky or airlines started paying passengers to fly.
Report by The Mole on location from ATE 2007
