Virgin Australia adds ABC News to inflight entertainment system

Virgin Australia will offer ABC News bulletins in flight for the first time after cutting a deal with ABC Commercial.

It marks the first time the airline, which is increasingly looking to attract valuable corporate and government customers, has had an agreement with a news provider.

Rival Qantas Airways recently switched to offering Sky News in flight after the end of a longstanding deal with Nine Network.

The deal between Virgin and the ABC, which on Wednesday was stripped of $254 million of funding over the next five years, gives passengers on widebody A330 and Boeing 777 aircraft to three 15-minute news bulletins. The bulletins will cover news, weather, sport, business and finance through the in-flight entertainment system.

Passengers on the airline's single-aisle 737 and E190 domestic fleet will be able to stream four dedicated 90-second news bulletins to their own devices from early 2015. Virgin's wireless in-flight entertainment app has been downloaded more than 1.4 million times since January 2013.

Virgin chief customer officer Mark Hassell said the airline continued to enhance the customer experience both on the ground and in the air by delivering "valuable, unique and trusted" Australian news content on a daily basis.

Virgin declined to disclose the value of the partnership with the ABC, with a spokeswoman saying the deal was "commercial in confidence".

"We will ensure our customers reach their destination informed of the latest current affairs," he said. "We are delighted to be working with the ABC to better service the needs of our business and leisure travellers and look forward to continuing to expand this unique offering into the future."