Friday 31 August 2018

Virgin Australia turns 18












IATA ICAO Callsign
VA VOZ VELOCITY


Happy Birthday Virgin Australia; 18 today. I remember the day you started operations.
Virgin Australia is Australia's second-largest airline behind QANTAS. With its base in Bowen Hills, (a suburb of Brisbane), the airline was founded by British businessman Richard Branson and former Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey. It was established on the 31st August 2000 with two aircraft operating on a single route, and suddenly found itself catapulted to the position of Australia's second airline after the collapse of Ansett Australia in September 2001. The airline has grown to directly serve 29 cities in Australia from hubs in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, using a fleet of Boeing 737-800, Boeing 777-300ER's and Embraer jets.


Virgin Blue also owned airlines like Pacific Blue; Polynesian Blue and V Australia but now all operate under the name Virgin Australia.
After several years operating as a low-cost carrier it improved its services recently and now offers meals, baggage and inflight entertainment as part of the ticket price on all flights.
In 2011 Virgin introduced new uniforms; new catering options on board; new wide body aircraft to compete with Qantas on Perth–Melbourne–Sydney services; and the concurrent introduction of business class in January 2012; together with a new livery and renaming of the brand from Virgin Blue to Virgin Australia.

Virgin Australia also has a regional branch called "Virgin Australia Regional Airlines"  (formerly Skywest) and it is based in Perth; servicing country towns in Western Australia as well as some interstate destinations Darwin, Alice Springs, and Adelaide. In April 2013 Skywest was purchased by Virgin Australia Holdings as its new regional offshoot.


Below are some of the liveries Virgin have had over the years.

VIRGIN BLUE B737-300 VH-VBY (CN 34323)
VIRGIN BLUE B737-81Q VH-VO1 (CN 30786)
VIRGIN BLUE B737-81Q (CN 30787)
PACIFIC BLUE B737-8FE ZK-PBA (CN 33796)
V AUSTRALIA B777-3ZGER VH-VPD (CN 37938)

On the 4th May 2011 Virgin Australia announced it will change its name and colour scheme, below are a few liveries that Virgin Australia kicked off with to celebrate the change .


VIRGIN AUSTRALIA ERJ 190 VH-ZPQ (CN 19000412)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B737-8FE VH-VUZ (CN 39921)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B777-3ZGER VH-VPE (CN 37939)

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B737-NG VH-VUA (CN 33997)
















As of April 2018 the current fleet stand at

ATR 72 - 14
AIRBUS A320 - 2
FOKKER F28 100 - 14
BOEING 737 - 75
BOEING 777 - 5

Virgin has on order
BOEING 737-8 MAX
BOEING 737 - 10 MAX

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