In April Virgin Australia entered voluntary administration, given the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Bain Capital has now completed its takeover of Virgin Australia, and as a result the airline has also emerged from voluntary administration. The new direction of the airline has been revealed today.
Continue reading: Revealed: Virgin Australia’s New Business Plan
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Sad, but if its what it takes to survive. I am missing Australia more than ever and I had always wanted to try their 777 business class product.
I flew Virgin Australia business class on Brisbane - Los Angeles in 2016. Very nice product, plus friendly crew. It will be missed.
Big blow for Delta and anyone flying them to that part of the works. Delta needs to find a better partner in Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Maybe Garuda Indonesia?
United is looking better and better. If only they hadn’t ruined up their frequent flyer program.
Understandable given what they needed to survive. I flew Virgin Australia 777 MEL-LAX this past February and the service was amazing in J! I'm so glad I was able to fly it when I did given where we are now. I do wonder if they'll have restart longhaul flights again after this pandemic or maybe Delta will add more flights to Australia.
I agree with Chase that this seems to be a Virgin Blue 2.0.
@ FNT diamond they do. Garuda is a skyteam member and then there is Vietnam airlines
I’m not sure how the lounges can be ‘scaled back’; the domestic ones have quite good space ( certainly more accommodating than QANTAS), the food is a bit of a joke..mostly people lining up to construct their own toasted sandwiches ( much tastier versions of which can be bought just outside the door for about AUD10)
Frankly their streaming service sucked, so I'm glad they're getting rid of that to save money.
In terms of their food and beverage service, that too also really sucked. Nothing more than a bite sized protein ball, a piece of chocolate or biscuit on most of their flights (a sandwich on flights of a couple hours). They have always had buy on board available alongside this 'snack'.
In terms of technology, they were discussing more along the lines of using self service bag drop and the like. The fact that in the three main cities that make up the core of their network (Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane), they still have manned desks for check in and bag drop, shows how far behind they are in technology. Their website and velocity's website is also less than great (you can't do any self service management of award bookings for example).
When I flew on several domestic flights earlier this year, I noticed the downgraded onboard service compared to several similar flights 4 years ago. Too bad that they will no longer fly long haul. I flew them LAX-SYD-LAX 2 years ago, and the service was outstanding, and while not quite on the same level, my most recent flight SYD-LAX on Delta was very good.
@Icarus: The Delta partnership with Garuda and Vietnam is very weak and nonexistent besides the minimum required by Sky Team. Whenever Australia and N.Z. re-open for Americans and other international tourists, United will be the only logical choice -- at least among the U.S. airlines. Same for elsewhere in the Pacific considering its strong network. I just wish United would bring back its old frequent flyer program.
As a previous platinum velocity flyer I loved “ the business “ on the long haul, business in short haul and even a free upgrade to economy x. I will miss them. As for the lounge in Cairns, it was the longest walk ever but amazing service: a sad loss.
Perhaps they will eventually expand to long haul flights again once they've made their domestic operations profitable.