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It appears that Christmas came early for passengers on Virgin Australia’s first Melbourne-Brisbane flight today, following the Queensland border reopening to Victoria, with the baggage carousel at Brisbane Airport transforming into a baggage train of Christmas gifts, thanks to Havaianas!

Virgin passengers waiting for their luggage received a Christmas surprise like no other as over 200 pairs of the brand’s latest-edition bright red thongs arrived on the baggage carousel for their collection, with the thongs, a perfect gift to start the first day of summer, helped to welcome Victorians back to the Sunshine State after months of lockdowns and border restrictions.

Providing some very interesting statistics, Virgin said that approximately 100,000 seats to Queensland destinations have been booked in the last seven (7) days, with almost three quarters of Queensland flights booked in the last seven (7) days were for travel in the lead up to and during Christmas.  In addition, flight searches for routes between Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland have increased by 103% week-on-week and traffic to virginaustralia.com is the highest it’s been in eight (8) months.

The top five flight routes were (both ways):-

  • Melbourne-Brisbane
  • Sydney-Brisbane
  • Melbourne-Gold Coast
  • Melbourne-Sydney
  • Sydney-Gold Coast

Recently appointed Virgin Australia Group CEO and Managing Director, Jayne Hrdlicka said today was a day of celebration for the Queensland-based airline, its people and travellers from the southern states, adding, “Queensland is our home, so it’s a particularly great day for Virgin Australia as we welcome so many of our loyal guests from Melbourne and Sydney back to the Sunshine State today.”

She added, “We’re seeing strong demand throughout December across all of our Queensland services from Victoria and New South Wales, so we know many Australians have been itching to visit Queensland to reunite with their loved-ones or do business.”

“The broader economic contribution that open borders will bring cannot be underestimated in what has been the most difficult year for many businesses, particularly in the tourism and hospitality industries.”

“Historically what is called the Golden Triangle, which covers flights between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, has been one of the busiest flight corridors in the world and with domestic travel volumes significantly increasing for these services, we will reopen our lounges in Melbourne and Sydney on 15 December, which will be welcome news for our loyal frequent flyer members and our Lounge staff.”

“With open borders we can bring more of our people back to work to safely connect Australians with their families, which is the best Christmas present an airline CEO could have asked for in 2020.”

Ms Hrdlicka also said, “We have always advocated for the safe re-opening of borders and we thank the Queensland Government for their actions in helping to reconnect the nation ahead of Christmas,”

More good news for passengers and agents in that to give added confidence when booking, Virgin Australia is waiving applicable change fees and allowing unlimited booking changes for reservations with travel between now and 31 January 2021. The airline will further extend booking flexibility until 31 March 2021 should a customer’s travel plans be impacted by COVID-19. More information here.

Flight currently are as follows: –

Return route (both ways) Return frequency from 01 December Return frequency by Christmas holidays One-way fares from*
Melbourne-Brisbane Two services per day Six services per day $159
Melbourne-Gold Coast Three services per week Up to five services per day from 21 December $155
Melbourne-Sunshine Coast Three services per week Daily services from 14 December.
Twice daily services from 28 December		 $175
Melbourne-Cairns Five services per week from 14 December Nine services per week from 21 December $239
Sydney-Brisbane Three services per day Nine services per day $115
Sydney-Gold Coast Daily services Six services per day $119
Sydney-Sunshine Coast Five services per week Up to twice daily services from 14 December

Twice daily services from 28 December

 $139
Sydney-Cairns Four services per week Daily services from 21 December

12 services per week from 4 January

 $215
Sydney-Hamilton Island Four services per week from 8 December Daily $205
Sydney-Whitsunday Coast Three services per week from 17 December No change $179
Newcastle-Brisbane Nine services per week Twice daily $135

*All fares include 23kg checked baggage, seat selection and Velocity Frequent Flyer points.

Check our Virgin’s Havaianas video by clicking on the box below: –