Issue 364: Fleet Moves

Qantas, Virgin plan their future fleets

I flew with Virgin Australia to Adelaide the other day other day. For me this otherwise unremarkable flight was interesting because it came just days after Virgin Australia announced it was buying the 737 MAX 10. On my 737-800 flight to Adelaide I was seated in row 29 – “does the 29 stand for 29in seat pitch?” I quipped in a text message to a mate (it doesn’t, but when you’re 189cm tall every economy class seat feels like it is pitched at 29in!).

In Virgin’s 737-800’s row 29 is the second-to-last row, very much at the back of the bus. From that vantage point I could seat that the aircraft was essentially full, but, no doubt in large part due to the fact Virgin uses rear door boarding, all those 170 or so passengers were able to get on the aeroplane relatively quickly and painlessly.