Virgin Australia boosts domestic flights quickly as state borders open-up for tourism

by James Wilkinson

Virgin Australia has quickly announced new flights across the nation, following the easing of travel restrictions in several states and territories.

The new flights are on the back of South Australia re-opening its borders to the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and New South Wales (NSW), and Queensland re-opening to the ACT.

Virgin Australia says it “acted swiftly and immediately scheduled more flights and recommenced services between these states”.

The move will see Virgin Australia recommence flights between Canberra and Adelaide, operate daily flights between Adelaide and Sydney, operate daily return flights between Brisbane and Canberra and add over 3000 seats between Canberra and Gold Coast for travel during October 2020.

“We’re pleased that Queensland is re-opening to ACT residents and that South Australia is re-opening to both ACT and NSW residents, which is great news for tourism operators and the local economies,” said Virgin Australia General Manager, Network & Revenue Management, Russell Shaw.

“We look forward to the safe re-opening of further borders to help the tourism and aviation industries to recover and provide more opportunities for Australians to travel locally.”

The new flights will be operated by Virgin Australia’s Boeing 737 fleet from early October and will also see the airline add further flights as demand increases from November.

Virgin Australia said the Canberra-Adelaide flights will recommence from 12 October 2020 and operate three return services per week; the Adelaide-Sydney return flights will increase from 3 per week to daily from 2 October, and up to double daily from 2 November; and by the end of October, the frequency of fights between Brisbane and Canberra will have increased from three return services per week to daily return services and the frequency of flights between Canberra and Gold Coast will have increased from two return services per week to five.

The airline also continues to operate direct services between Adelaide-Brisbane and Adelaide-Gold Coast.

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