Virgin Australia to resume direct Melbourne to Los Angeles flights

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This was published 7 years ago

Virgin Australia to resume direct Melbourne to Los Angeles flights

By Patrick Hatch
Updated
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Virgin Australia will reinstate direct flights from Melbourne to Los Angeles next year, three years after it abandoned the popular route.

Starting in April 2017, Virgin will fly Boeing 777-300ERs between Melbourne and LA five days a week, the airline announced on Tuesday.

The flight path from Melbourne to America's second-largest city is currently dominated by Qantas and United Airlines, which each fly daily, after Virgin axed the route in 2014.

Virgin has narrowed its loss and ended the year with cash in the coffers.

Virgin has narrowed its loss and ended the year with cash in the coffers. Credit: Philip Gostelow

"The United States is a key market for Virgin Australia and this enables us to service Los Angeles from the three biggest gateways in Australia – Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney," Virgin chief executive John Borghetti said in a statement.

"In partnership with Delta Air Lines, we will soon offer 25 services each week from Australia to Los Angeles."

Mr Borghetti said it was the only trans-Pacific service to offer business class flat-beds with direct aisle access on all services, totalling 25 a week come April.

The new flights will leave Melbourne at 11.30am on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, and arrive in LA at 9am the same day.

Flights will depart LA at 9.10pm on Tuesday, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, arriving in Melbourne at 6am two days later.

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Virgin will cut its Brisbane to LA services from seven a week to six and cease its thrice-weekly Sydney to Abu Dhabi flights to accommodate the new route.

Virgin's alliance partner Etihad Airways with introduce three new Sydney to Abu Dhabi flights.

Virgin also announced on Tuesday three more flights between Perth and Abu Dhabi a week, starting in June and using A330s for the first time.

That will bringing the number of flights on the route, shared with Etihad, to 10 and the number of flights between Australia and the United Arab Emirates to 45 a week.

Virgin is continuing to tweak its domestic and international offerings, and is focusing especially on its business class service, in an attempt to make up ground against larger competitor Qantas.

The airline spent big last year refurbishing planes, cutting capacity and improving customer service, driving it to a $224.7 million full-year loss.

See also: Virgin Australia's new business class launched

See also: World's best airline for 2016 named: Skytrax awards

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