Virgin Australia Turns 15 Today

IATA	ICAO	Callsign
VA	VOZ	VELOCITY

Virgin Australia, formerly known as Virgin Blue, is turning 15 today.
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.

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 2015, the Virgin Australia Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Current Virgin Australia fleet

Aircraft	In Fleet	Passengers				Notes
		J	W	Y	Total
Boeing 777-300ER	5
		33	40	288	361
Airbus A330-200	6
		24	—	255	279
Boeing 737-700	2	8	—	120	128
Boeing 737-800	74	—	8	168	176
		8	—
Embraer E-190AR	18	6	–	92	98
Total	105

Emirates A380 Diverts to Darwin

This wouldn't have happened yesterday whilst I was there would it; but this morning an Emirates A380, EK 415 enroute from Sydney to Dubai made a medical emergency diversion into Darwin. A6-EEG (CN 116) departed Sydney from 16L just after 6.12 am Sydney Time (20.12 UTC) heading for Dubai. Some kind of medical emergency occurred; and the decision was made to head to Darwin. EK 415 made a couple of fuel dumps (to reach its correct AUW limits) before landing on rwy 29 at 10.05 am Darwin Time, (00.05 UTC). 415 was on the ground for around 2 and 1/2 hours before departing again from runway 29 at 12.13 Darwin time (02.13 UTC)

(AUW, known as the all-up weight is the total aircraft weight at any moment during the flight or ground operation.)

The below images are supplied by Sid Mitchell and I thank him for sending them through to me.

Darwin to Brisbane Trip

I was on the road early this morning because I had a long drive ahead of me as I was going out bush to a Mango Farm to see how our products were performing.

On the way back I came across some cut outs of war planes on the side of the road and then I saw a sign saying "WW11 Strauss Air Strip" so I stopped and took a few photos.

Strauss Airfield was an airfield constructed between 19 March to 27 April 1942 near Noonamah, during World War II. It was also known as 27 Mile Field or Humpty Doo Strip. Constructed by sections of the United States Army 808th Engineer Aviation Battalion, they built a single runway of 5,000 ft × 100 ft (1,524 m × 30 m) wide with associated taxiways and dispersals. The airfield was officially dedicated as Strauss Field in memory and honour of United States Captain Allison W. Strauss who was killed piloting a P-40 Kittyhawk from the 8th Pursuit Squadron ("The Blacksheep") of the 49th Fighter Group after crashing into Darwin harbour during a Japanese air raid on the Darwin RAAF airfield on 27 April 1942.

After a very busy "hot" week in Darwin it was time to come home, I normally fly QANTAS every time but sometimes, like today, I couldn't get a flight on QANTAS so I had to come home on Virgin Australia. Last time I flew out of Darwin the check in with Virgin was pathetic and sadly today was no different. Virgin have 8 check in counters; 1 for Priority, 2 for bag drop and 5 for check in... Well they had 3 people all up checking people in and it took me 55 minutes from the minute I lined up to dropping my bag off. When I got to the counter there were no apologies for the delay so I asked "are you short staffed because it has taken me nearly an hour" and the reply I got was this "this is normal"

Well it is quite clear Virgin are putting profit before customers as the QANTAS check ins were all clear and done and there were still many people waiting to check in at Virgin when I walked away. That in turn made our flight depart late.

I arrived at the airport at 12.30 pm and finally got to gate 6 at 1.35; we started boarding at 1.55 (20 mins late) and I was in 29F on this Boeing 737-8FE, the rego for todays flight was VH-VUA.

We pushed back at 2.25 pm and commenced taxiing for runway 29 at 2.30 pm and became airborne at 2.37 pm Darwin time. After take off we maintained runway heading for some time and then banked right and flew back over the airport. We climbed to flight level 370 and our track today took us over Longreach and Emerald and on to Brisbane. We began our descent at 6.03 pm (Brisbane time) and landed on runway 19 at 6.38 pm. 

QANTAS B737-838 VH-XZO (CN 44576)

TERRITORY AIR PIPER PA 32R-301 VH-FGG (CN 32R-8113103)

JETSTAR A320-232 VH-VFV (CN 5858)

CAREFLIGHT BEECHCRAFT B200 VH-ZCN (CN BB-1987)

MY FLIGHT HOME

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA B737-8FE VH-VUA (CN 33997)

ALLIANCE F28- MARK 70 VH-QQY (CN 11575)

AIR NORTH EMBRAER 120ER VH-ANK (CN 120-155)

SUPER STALLION CH 53E NUMBER 07

Day 4 in Darwin

Today I had a big day ahead with our biggest customer up here in Darwin.

I knew Silk Air was arriving from Singapore just after 8am so I made sure I was out there for that, I then quickly drove around the airport to see if there was anything interesting. I came across two helicopters and that was it. 

PEARL AVIATION BEECHCRAFT B200 VH-OYD (CN BB-1041)

SILK AIR B737-8SA 9V-MGD (CN 44220)

JAYROW HELICPOTERS BELL 206L VH-BLL (CN 45174)

JAYROW AEROSPATIALE INDUSTRIES AS.350BA VH-JRJ (CN 2292)

QANTAS B737-838 VH-VXQ (CN 33723)

CESSNA 402C VH-CYT (CN 402C-0293)

After spending the day with my client, like the other 3 evenings, I headed down to the water front to watch the sunset as tonight would be the last because I head home tomorrow.