Virgin Australia Embraer E-190 VH-ZPD Departs Australia For Good - Five E-190s to be Withdrawn - VARA Fokker 50s Gone Soon too!

I was interested to read this week that Virgin Australia will withdraw from service five of their Embraer E-190 regional jets with the fleet of 98-seat regional jets to be reduced to 13 - from 18 currently - by September 2016.

File photo taken by Dave  ©

And it appears that the fleet withdrawal may have recently commenced with E-190 VH-ZPD departing Brisbane on Tuesday 2 February for Nashville (Tennessee) via Apia (Tonga), Honolulu (Hawaii) and Van Nuys (California).  Reports suggest that the aircraft has ferried to Nashville in  preparation for operations for Aero Mexico.

VH-ZPD in Virgin Blue colours at Brisbane in 2010  (File photo)

VH-ZPD at Cloncurry Airport in 2013  (File photo taken by Dave  ©)

It was interesting to note that the final revenue service for VH-ZPD was the VOZ617/620 service from Brisbane to Mackay Airport and back late on Sunday 31 January.

Virgin Australia expects that the E-190 withdrawals would be covered through increased utilisation of the airline’s Boeing B737-800 fleet.

Virgin Australia also announced it would sell its six Embraer E-170 jets which were currently sub-leased to alliance partner Delta Air Lines.

E-170 VH-ZHD in Virgin Blue colours departs Rockhampton Airport  (File photo)

VH-ZHF now N749CZ with Delta Air Lines  (Cory W. Watts / https://commons.wikimedia.org/)

Finally, the company also announced that the fleet of Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (VARA) Fokker 50s, which the airline put up for sale in October 2015, will be gone by the end of 2015/16.

VH-FNF on finals at Emerald Airport in October 2015  (File photo)

VARA Fokker 50s VH-FNE and VH-FNF both operated Fly-in Fly-out (FIFO) charter flights to Miles and then Emerald throughout most of 2015 with VH-FNF departing Brisbane on return to Perth in early January.

It appears that the final day of Fokker 50 operations - currently out of Perth Airport - will be on Saturday 27 February.