Virgin Blue will introduce a ‘pay for weight’ baggage policy and raise its ‘Flexible Fares’ by up to five per cent on some business routes as part of new cost cutting measures.
It will also trim capacity by three per cent from October 2008 by taking two Boeing 737 aircraft out of service. This comes on top of the previously announced six per cent capacity reduction for 2008/09.
The carrier has also reached agreement with Embraer to delay the delivery of five aircraft, reducing capacity in 2008/09 by a further three per cent.
The airline said there will be no redundancies at either Virgin Blue or Pacific Blue.
Under the new baggage fees, a flat pre-purchased levy of $8 will apply from September 1 for bags of 23 kgs of checked baggage for passengers travelling on discount fares. That will rise to $20 for passengers who have not pre-purchased.
