BRISBANE-MELBOURNE LAUNCH BROUGHT FORWARD

Virgin Blue has announced it will make an application to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority for a variation of its Air Operators Certificate, to allow it to bring forward the planned introduction of its Brisbane-Melbourne service from October 1 to September 7.

In celebration of the early arrival, Virgin Blue will extend its special Brisbane-Melbourne offer of $99 one way including GST, on all seats booked before its first commercial flight on August 31.

Initially there will be two return flights a day, increasing to three daily returns by the end of the month.

Even after its launch special, Virgin Blue has committed to offer half its seats on the Brisbane-Melbourne route for $139 or less one way, including GST, on an ongoing basis.

Chief Executive Officer, Brett Godfrey, made the announcement following unexpectedly high demand for a Virgin Blue direct Brisbane-Melbourne service during the month of October.

“Both our staff and our customers have been so enthusiastic and excited about the Melbourne service, that we decided to arrive ahead of schedule”, he said.

Brett Godfrey flew to Canberra today to meet with Senior CASA officials, to formally receive the airline’s Air Operators Certificate (AOC).

Meanwhile, Virgin Blue has been overwhelmed by the tremendous public response to its “$48 for 48 hours” launch special.

14,580 seats were sold during the 48 hours, the equivalent of 90 full 737-400 aircraft.

The call centre was staffed to full capacity and the website server upgraded prior to taking bookings but the phenomenal response inundated both distribution channels.

Brett Godfrey said, “We anticipated a reasonable level of public interest but we were just completely overwhelmed by the extraordinary demand for those seats. We sold more than three times the amount we’d hoped and we are just sorry that some of our potential passengers had difficulty getting through.”

Still, Virgin Blue sold nearly 15,000 seats, which is about 50 percent more than the amount of Brisbane-Sydney “red hot fares” sold by the three other airlines combined in recent weeks.

Brett Godfrey continued, “We were focused on making a large number of seats available at $48 rather than just limited seats at off-peak times. Our launch special fare was honest and straight forward, which clearly appealed to the travelling public’s imagination and desire to fly and helped us maintain our promise to keep the air fair.”

Bookings can be made on the website at www.virginblue.com.au, or by calling Virgin Blue reservations on 136789 between the hours of 7.00am and 9.00pm Brisbane time, or through your local travel agent.

Bookings for the Brisbane-Melbourne route are subject to approval of the above mentioned variation by CASA.