Interesting interview with Craig Kreeger

http://www.flightglobal.com/interviews/ ... interview/

A340's will be binned by 2018/9 replaced by 787's.
747 fleet will likely be around in 2020.
A380 order is very unclear.

Other than that, some interesting comments about management structure and the turnaround financially.

Don't expect any investment in the A340s then: I suspect in 2018 much of the talk on here will be about how to avoid what may by then be a very tatty fleet.

And expect a lot more American passengers, many with Delta status presumably demanding automatic upgrades because that's what they're used to. It's difficult to see how reward seats won't become harder to get.

My prediction for VS under Craig Kreeger is a more corporate and less "quirky British" airline that squeezes more seats into its fleet of smaller planes.

Don't expect any investment in the A340s then: I suspect in 2018 much of the talk on here will be about how to avoid what may by then be a very tatty fleet.

And expect a lot more American passengers, many with Delta status presumably demanding automatic upgrades because that's what they're used to. It's difficult to see how reward seats won't become harder to get.

My prediction for VS under Craig Kreeger is a more corporate and less "quirky British" airline that squeezes more seats into its fleet of smaller planes.

Agree -- but it's striking that all of those points have already been made on this site in discussions of the DL venture, inter alia. The interview thus seems to me to be remarkable for saying so little. It doesn't say anything interesting about the replacement of the jumbos; it doesn't give any hint (or any reassurance) as to how VS's individuality will avoid being sucked into the DL vortex. It doesn't talk about new destinations or expansion in ways that excite me. Detroit, Atlanta, Minneapolis. Woo-hoo.

And an awful lot of the quotations seem incredibly corporate-generic to me. It strikes me as a profile PR piece, and I'm a bit disappointed by workaday nature of it all.

It doesn't talk about new destinations or expansion in ways that excite me. Detroit, Atlanta, Minneapolis. Woo-hoo.

Maybe our mistake when discussing possible new destinations on V-Flyer has been to assume that VS will want to fly to places where British travellers want to go.

From that article it strikes me that Mr Kreeger's aim is to find cities in the US where there are Americans who want to fly to the UK (and beyond). Presumably that's a far larger and potentially more lucrative market.

So yes, Detroit and Minneapolis may fail to excite us Brits, but maybe it's more about exciting the people of Detroit and Minneapolis.

He has a daunting task ahead, to make VS profitable again. Routing through some of the cities mentioned could prove quite lucrative, we shall just have to wait and see where this goes in due course.

Nothing overly unexpected said, although I do feel that some of the desired destinations of us V-Flyers won't be as profitable as some US destinations that will give a good amount of feed traffic and quick turnarounds that Mr Kreeger will be looking for.

Fingers crossed for Rio and a LR expansion into Europe.... oh look there go another flock of flying pigs ii)

I'm with Joey on the LR expansion into Europe
TBH I have never been a fan of the alliance with an american airline but that's just my prejudice.

The thing for me which was notable by its absence was any mention of service improvements. Mr Kreeger's comments seem to indicate that he believes VS is still 'special and different' from the rest. However as increasingly reflected on this site and others, passengers aren't necessarily believing that anymore.

Take PE as an example. It's still one of if not the best seat across the pond in that class of travel. However the 'nice bits' around the sides have been slashed away to such an extent that it's now nearer an economy+ rather than business minus product.

Also, I'll be sad to see the A346's go. I really like flying those aircraft.

The thing for me which was notable by its absence was any mention of service improvements. Mr Kreeger's comments seem to indicate that he believes VS is still 'special and different' from the rest. However as increasingly reflected on this site and others, passengers aren't necessarily believing that anymore.

I agree - this is the sort of thing I was driving at in my earlier comments - his remarks on VS being special are unconvincing (he has to say that, really!), whereas in reality the product is being cut back and normalised quite conspicuously. This is what I referred to as the DL vortex - he will presumably run VS the way a good US legacy carrier is managed, and we all know how that works out!

I am boring even myself on this topic, but it continues to disappoint me that we will more likely end up with something rather like DL than something rather like VX. I know which one is closer to the spirit of the VS of old.

And I completely agree about the 346s. Wonderful aircraft, such a shame they are uneconomic. I am amazed that their retirement has prompted so little emotion here - when the jumbos go it will be very different!

I suspect he's realised that, by and large, VS still offers a superior trans-Atlantic product to the US legacy carriers - even if some British FFs think standards have slipped over the years.

And, having worked for AA, he'll know there are many, many Americans who travel trans-Atlantic but who wouldn't think of flying with a British carrier. They, I believe, are the passengers he sees as being crucial to VS' future. He just needs to offer them something to prise them away from their lucrative FF programmes and, with a combination of the existing quality VS product and the connectivity and miles/status earning opportunities offered by the Delta JV, he can. No need for any service improvements - just some new direct flights to London from DL's hubs.

That may drive away some UK FFs but for every one that is driven away, if he can pull in two or three US FFs who currently use AA or UA then he's done his job.

I suspect he's realised that, by and large, VS still offers a superior trans-Atlantic product to the US legacy carriers

If he's banking on this then that's a dangerous assumption. US carriers are throwing money at their premium cabins again.

AA's new J cabin is the same as Cathay's, and hard product-wise is definitely a tough rival for VS UC.

US Airways is also offering a very decent J cabin on their A330 fleet.

DL & UA are also making strides.

The UC wing and ground experience is obviously a major + point for VS.

AA's new J cabin is the same as Cathay's, and hard product-wise is definitely a tough rival for VS UC.

Maybe, but having worked there he'll hopefully know exactly who its customers are, what they want and aren't getting from AA and how to exploit that.

Yes it may be a dangerous strategy, but he's got to do something to turn around the losses. There's a huge potential market to exploit in the US and simply growing VS' market share in the UK probably wont be enough.

[buns]

Interesting Article - Thanks for posting the link y) y)

What comes across is profitability and maximising premium revenues through the tie in with Delta, which to me sounds the death knell for sales n(

I hope I am proved wrong

buns