West coast start for V Australia

V AUSTRALIA has confirmed that the nation's newest international airline will start flying to the US west coast on February 27.

But it says its Brisbane-LA service will be delayed until at least early April.

The airline gets its first Boeing 777-300ER from the US manufacturer on January 26 but faces increased competition as Qantas starts operating a second Airbus A380 on Sydney-Los Angeles from December 22.

The second superjumbo will allow the Flying Kangaroo to increase its A380 services to Los Angeles from Melbourne and Sydney to up to six flights a week.

V Australia will initially launch with a thrice-weekly service from Sydney, heading to LA on Fridays, Sundays and Wednesdays.

But a second aircraft due to arrive in February will allow the airline to boost the Sydney-LA service to daily from March 21.

"We're very excited and enthusiastic," V Australia executive general manager Scott Swift said yesterday. "We're reinvigorated for the launch of the new airline."

The airline will be flying a three-class configuration, with business class featuring a bar and lie-flat seats, a premium economy cabin and economy seats it believes provide more room than Qantas.

Its launch was put back from mid-December after the deliveries of its first planes were delayed by a strike at Boeing, a problem understood to have cost an additional $3 million.

The Brisbane service had been due to launch on March 1 but the airline has been keen to better stagger the delivery of its first four planes.

"In relation to the Brisbane service, Boeing are still to confirm the aircraft and at this stage we're working some schedule changes for those guests booked up until April 7," Mr Swift said. "Those guests in that first five weeks, we'll be moving them down from Brisbane to Sydney on Virgin Blue and then through to the US on the V Australia service."

Mr Swift acknowledged the airline would be starting off in a "challenging period" but said V Australia was a long-term venture -- the success of which should not be measured by one Christmas.

The airline was introducing the right aircraft and a new product to a route that needed competition.

"I think that when the travelling public gets on there and experiences the aircraft, the product and the people, we can be nothing but successful," he said.

Mr Swift said bookings had been steady and he had been particularly heartened by the response to the airline's premium economy offering.

He said there would be an increase in marketing activity.

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