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Borghetti says new 777 business class will support better returns from trans-Pacific market

written by australianaviation.com.au | July 21, 2016

John Borghetti launching the new business class at Los Angeles Airport.
John Borghetti launching the new business class at Los Angeles Airport.

Virgin Australia chief executive John Borghetti says the airline’s new business class is the leading product on trans-Pacific routes and will help the airline achieve better returns on fares in what is a very competitive market.

The airline has officially launched its new business class cabin on board its Boeing 777-300ER fleet, which currently serve Los Angeles from Brisbane and Sydney, as well as operate the Sydney-Abu Dhabi route.

The first reconfigured aircraft took to the skies April 30 and currently three of Virgin’s five 777s feature the Tangerine London-designed and B/E Aerospace-manufactured business class seats.

Borghetti says the new business class will allow the airline to charge a premium on its previous fares for the seats at the front end of the aircraft.

“It puts you in a position where you can sustain a better pricing structure because people will demand an aisle seat and they do,” Borghetti told reporters on board one of the airline’s reconfigured 777-300ERs, VH-VPD, at Los Angeles Airport on Wednesday (US time).

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“If you are not competitive on product you have to discount your price.”

Borghetti said the pricing on its business class fares would be “a couple of hundred dollars higher” once the reconfiguration program was complete.

The Australia-US market has experienced a surge in new capacity in recent times, with American bringing its own aircraft on the Sydney-Los Angeles route, while Qantas has returned to San Francisco and Air Canada launched Brisbane-Vancouver. And across the Tasman both United and American have started flights to Auckland from San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively, and Air New Zealand started flights to Houston.

While Borghetti acknowledged the growth in available seats, the veteran aviation executive noted the impact had been mostly at the economy end of the aircraft.

“That’s why you saw such pricing,” Borghetti said.

The seats, which are also on Virgin’s six Airbus A330-200s that fly between Perth and Australia’s east coast capitals as well as to Fiji, were being installed at Chennault International Airport in Louisiana. All five 777s were expected to feature the new business class, refreshed premium economy and Economy+ extra legroom mini-cabin by September.

Overall, the cabin changes have resulted in a reduction of 22 seats on board Virgin’s 777s, from 361 seats under the old configuration to 339 under the new configuration.

Virgin Australia's new business class, now flying on its 777 fleet. (Virgin Australia)
Virgin Australia’s new business class, now flying on its 777 fleet. (Virgin Australia)
A supplied image of Virgin Australia's premium economy cabin. (Virgin Australia)
A supplied image of Virgin Australia’s premium economy cabin. (Virgin Australia)

While Virgin’s 777 premium economy cabin, which is being renamed to “Premium” was shrinking to 24 seats at 41-inch pitch, from 40 seats currently at 38in pitch, the business class cabin was increasing from 33 seats currently in a 2-3-2 layout to 37 seats in a 1-2-1 layout.

There is also a 10-seat reduction in economy, from 288 seats to 278 seats. The figure includes Economy+.

Meanwhile, Virgin also announced at its Los Angeles launch plans to equip its 777, 737 and Airbus A330 fleet with in-flight internet wi-fi from mid-2017.

The airline said it would share more details about the in-flight wi-fi offering, including technology partners and business model, before the end of 2016.

Qantas said in February it planned to begin trials of on board wifi on a 737-800 in late 2016, with a view to rolling out free wi-fi internet access on domestic flights from 2017.

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Comments (8)

  • Going to be great to have the option for inflight Wi-Fi on both major carriers 🙂

  • Steve

    says:

    Flew the new business class from LA to SYD last month. INCREDIBLE!

    Much better seat than any other offering I’ve tried including Emirates, and certainly walks all over the Qantas business class seat.

    Also had the most attentive and professional flight attendant look after me.

    Very happy with the direction VA is going in, I still fly Qantas domestically most the time but VA is certainly seeing more and more of my business.

    Wifi internet will be a welcome edition!

  • Pity there are no pictures of the new Premium Seats (previously Premium Economy). As a regular person flying on Premium Economy with Qantas and Cathay Pacific, I would like know what this looks like on the new Virgin 777.

    • australianaviation.com.au

      says:

      Hi Andrew,
      we have added a photo of Virgin’s Premium into the story. cheers.

  • k lane

    says:

    I’ll stick with the very sexy SPACESEAT across on ANZ

  • Ben

    says:

    Seeing the difference in the photos between business class and premium economy reminds me of the comparison between first and business class of yesteryear. First class seems to be going the way of the dodo, business is the new first and premium economy is the new business. However I wonder if it will ever come full circle: First class in it’s present form is completely phased out, business is renamed first and premium economy is renamed business? Which then begs the question, why go down the premium economy road to start with? I don’t know about the wisdom of offering a 4th class when the writing has on the wall for first class for some time. I admit VA as such never had first class to start with – I’m referring more to the airlines that are currently persisting with 4 class options: QF, BA, CX, SQ etc.

  • Andrew Ewen

    says:

    @K Lane – My understanding is that you won’t be able to stick with the ‘sexy Spaceseat’ across at NZ – apparently it is being removed next year and replaced with the same premium economy product that the 777-200 and 787-9 already have

  • Mark

    says:

    The new Virgin and QF business class seats are truly a win for the travelling public. They are as good if not better then many airlines first class.

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