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Tags: Virgin Blue / Seats / LCCs / Australia Travel / Seating / Airline News / → All Tags

Virgin Blue Wants To Squish Your Knees, Make Tall People Suffer On Flights

The Aussie part of Richard Branson's vast empire, low-cost carrier Virgin Blue, has a plan that doesn't sound good for tall or large people. Or anyone one wants to sit reasonably comfortably in a plane, in fact.

Like many airline proposals these days, the new project centers on getting more passengers into the same space. The ideas include putting in extra seats after the emergency exit at the back (apparently that alone would decrease their costs by 3%, presuming people buy those seats) and trying to find other ways to alter the mix of premium, economy and "third class" seats.

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Tags: Tiger Airways / Australia Travel / Virgin Blue / Jetstar / Qantas / → All Tags

World's Third-Busiest Airline Route Gets More Crowded

We have to admit we were a little surprised to learn that the trip from Sydney to Melbourne ranks as the third-busiest travel route in the world, but if that's true, then it sure makes sense that low-cost carrier Tiger Airways has just thrown its two cents in the ring.

Since last Friday, Tiger has been running multiple flights between Sydney and Melbourne each day, with all-inclusive one-way fares starting from A$39 ($31) for the 90-minute flight. There's heavy competition from Jetstar, Virgin Blue and Qantas, but at the moment Tiger's prices are definitely amongst the lowest. If nothing else, this means that if you get Down Under, you will definitely be able to take in both Sydney and Melbourne without adding too much strain to the budget.

Related Stories:
· New Melbourne to Sydney Flight Route Takes Off [The Age]
· Tiger Airways Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: 713 Avenue]

Tags: Virgin Blue / Hamilton Island / Australia Travel / Best Job in the World / Ben Southall / → All Tags

Virgin Blue Starts New Route, Direct to Best Job in the World

Virgin Blue says they've introduced their new Sydney to Hamilton Island route—they started flying it on Saturday—only "after close analysis," saying there's long been a clear demand from both domestic and international travelers to access the Whitsunday Island's main stop from Sydney, but we suspect it's actually a sudden demand: everybody wants to see how Best Job in the World winner Ben Southall is doing.

It's surely no coincidence that Virgin Blue's route has started up just a couple of days after Ben arrived for his six-month residence on Hamilton Island. Now that he is Twittering and blogging his way around the Whitsunday Islands, it's no wonder Virgin Blue has found a bunch of extra customers.

If you want to check out Ben's lifestyle or have your own personal reasons for hitting the Whitsundays—sun, sand and surf still count—Virgin Blue has daily direct flights from Sydney. We found flights as low as A$145 ($115, one way) but you have to book a bit ahead of time to get 'em that cheap. Say hi to Ben for us!

Related Stories:
· Island Caretaker Blog [Official Site]
· Hamilton Island Gets a Brit for Best Job in the World [Jaunted]
· Virgin Blue Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Gluehwein Effects]

Tags: Virgin Blue / Australia Travel / Lost Luggage / Terrorism / → All Tags

Virgin Blue Decides Which Guitars Can Fly Where

We really thought the Richard Branson-led Aussie low cost carrier Virgin Blue would be cooler than it demonstrated this week.

Long-serving Australian musician Steve Lucas - he's not exactly a household name around the world, but his band X have been playing longer than most of us have been alive – was doing what he often does, taking a Virgin Blue flight to get down from Sydney to a gig in Melbourne. But then the airline took all of Lucas's luggage off the plane.

It wasn't because one of his three guitars was in a box that looked like a coffin; no, the problem was that one of his guitar straps was decorated with empty bronze bullet cartridges. Lucas landed in Melbourne and discovered that for some reason, all three guitars had been sent to Canberra, and the Virgin Blue complaints line told him he was "potentially a terrorist." Perhaps they know something about the quality of his music that we don't.

Related Stories:
· Virgin On the Ridiculous [The Age]
· Virgin Blue Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: monkeyc.net]

Tags: World's Most Dangerous Airports / Airports / Soloman Islands / Virgin Blue / → All Tags

Isn't This Where the Plane on Lost Landed?

We're still adding to our list of the world's most dangerous airports. Know a stomach dropping, palm sweat inducing airport we should check out? Send it along.

Forget roller coasters. We get our kicks on scary-as-hell runways. So we're about ready to schedule a trip to the South Pacific after tipster Paul Sloan of Tahiti Expeditions sent along word of Gizo Airport (GZO) in the Solomon Islands. Is it us, or does this runway look like it just shouldn't work? Apparently it does!

For the record, there are several dozen other airports scattered throughout the Solomon Islands, including the comparatively giant Honiara International Airport, where you can even catch a flight on Virgin Blue.

Needless to say, if you're Soloman Islands-bound and not to Honiara, you'll needs to board a tiny Solomon Airlines jet to reach this little beaut of a runway. Nailbiting landing are part of the exotic fun, don't you know.

Related Stories:
· At Least The Juana Azurduy Airport Has a Paved Runway [Jaunted]
· World's Most Dangerous Airports [Jaunted]
· Island Travel: Budget Airlines Hit Solomon Islands [Jaunted]

[Photo: TravelPod]

Tags: Best Job In the World / Hamilton Island / Tourism Queensland / Travel Contests / Virgin Blue / → All Tags

Finalists for 'Best Job In the World' Finally Go to Battle on Hamilton Island

Time sure flies when you're not in the running for The Best Job in the World, "caretaker" of Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef, since it only feels like yesterday that we wracked our brain thinking of cool things to say in our audition video. Had we ever gotten around to making that video, perhaps we'd be one of the 16 finalists from 15 countries flown this weekend to their possible future home.

So what's on the hectic schedule for the Survivor-like group, which includes our past interview subject Angelene Orth? Having flown in on Virgin Blue, they've already seen the region's hottest airline, which was promptly followed by a tour of the digs at stake: the 3-bedroom luxury Blue Pearl villa.

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Tags: New Routes / Australia Travel / Queensland Travel / Virgin Blue / → All Tags

Virgin Blue Reckons Queensland's Gonna Be Big

Virgin Blue taketh away--the Aussie low cost carrier cut 28 flights from high frequency routes recently--but they also giveth. Jaunted tipster Tuddy let us know that Virgin Blue started flying five new routes this week.

Four of the routes are out of the northern Queensland city of Townsville, heading to other Queensland destinations Cairns, Rockhampton and the Gold Coast, as well as down to Aussie capital Canberra. They've also started flights on the Canberra to Hobart route.

These new routes are a big deal for Queensland tourism and especially for Townsville--overnight there are almost 70% more possibilities for flying out of town. We're wondering if Virgin Blue knows something we don't know and Queensland is about to become a despite-the-recession tourist hotspot. With route opening specials as low as A$46 ($33) it's very tempting to try it out ourselves.

Related Stories:
· Virgin Blue Launches New Townsville Flights [news.com.au]
· Virgin Blue Flying A Bit Less Often [Jaunted]
· Queensland Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: JamesDPhotography]

Tags: Virgin Blue / Australia Travel / LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / → All Tags

Virgin Blue Flying A Bit Less Often

Our favorite Aussie low-cost carrier Virgin Blue has been talking flight cutbacks for months and this week announced the biggest cuts so far--28 flights will be cut from its daily schedule to cut their operating costs and deal with decreased demand.

The nice part about Virgin Blue's decision--and the reason we don't dislike them too much--is they're not actually cutting out any routes, just decreasing the number of services on some of them.

Unfortunately there might be 400 Virgin Blue staff who don't like the company too much, because they're either now having to take leave without pay or do shorter hours, while the lucky ones are getting transfers to V Australia. CEO Brett Godfrey, however, reckons the staff are happy and said, "We are very encouraged by the attitude of people.'' He's obviously forgotten about the disgruntled staff board games.

Related Stories:
· Virgin Blue Cuts 28 Daily Flights From Domestic Routes [Jaunted]
· Virgin Blue, We Used To Love You [Jaunted]
· Virgin Blue Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: JamesDPhotography]

Tags: Airline Hell / Virgin Blue / Games / → All Tags

Snakes And Ladders: Disgruntled Virgin Blue Edition

There's one ex-employee of Virgin Blue who might not be getting a job in the airline industry again--but that's OK because he seems to have potential as a board game designer.

Torsten Koerting resigned from Virgin Blue's Brisbane office last month and in frustration left a lasting legacy: A board game he designed that looks like Snakes and Ladders, but is really all about the frustrations of working for this particular airline.

It might not be great publicity to Koerting's motivation for making the game:

The difficulty in reaching the end of the game [is like] making decisions in real-life at Virgin Blue.

But the fact that the airline employed staff who are this creative and clever in the first place is probably a strange pat on the back. Play the game at your own peril--there are a lot of nasty rescue slides to fall down.

Related Stories:
· NextGen Virgin Board Game [Brisbane Times]
· Ex-Staffer Plays Games with Virgin Blue [The Age]
· Virgin Blue coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Age]

Tags: LCCs / Virgin Blue / Low Cost Carriers / Australia Travel / → All Tags

Virgin Blue, We Used To Love You

Oh, how the expansionist can fall. Aussie LCC Virgin Blue spent the last few months bragging about expanding its network to fly to Papua New Guinea and all over Western Australia but now they're starting a big back-pedal. Ouch.

With profits plunging by 55 percent in the last year, Virgin's singing a different tune. There will be cuts, they say, including some flights and entire routes.

Exactly which flights will get the ax depends on a review Virgin promises will be finished during December, so the start of 2009 will bring bad news rather than good for Virgin customers. Nothing like making a New Year's resolution that says "We will make fewer customers happy."

But we're selfish--as long as the Virgin cuts don't include our January flights to Sydney and back, we won't complain too much.

Related Stories:
· Virgin Plans Drastic Cuts [Herald Sun]
· Virgin Blue Loves Expansions: This Week It's PNG [Jaunted]
· Virgin Blue Flies Into Virgin West Oz Territory [Jaunted]

[Photo: Drewski2112]

Tags: Virgin Blue / Low Cost Carriers / LCCs / Papua New Guinea / → All Tags

Virgin Blue Loves Expansions: This Week It's PNG

Australian-based budget airline Virgin Blue is exploding its flight coverage and has just announced a deal that's going to see low cost carriers flying into relatively untapped market Papua New Guinea.

In a slightly confusing collaboration with Pacific Blue and Airlines PNG, Virgin Blue is offering four return flights a week between Brisbane and Port Moresby, starting from November. They're starting out with sale fares of A$249 ($200) and the regular budget price will stay under A$300 (one-way).

That's cheap enough to see a lot more tourist interest in Papua New Guinea, we reckon. Bring on Elvis and the giant rats: We're off to PNG.

Related Stories:
· Virgin Blue Joins Forces With Airlines PNG [Peanuts]
· Virgin Blue Flies into Virgin West Oz Territory [Jaunted]
· Papua New Guinea Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: kabl1992]

Tags: Virgin Blue / Australia Travel / Low Cost Carriers / LCCs / New Routes / → All Tags

Virgin Blue Flies Into Virgin West Oz Territory

The V Australia part of Virgin might be worried about red tape right now, but Down Under domestic carrier Virgin Blue is getting excited about throwing more and more routes the way of travelers. And we have to say we like that in an airline.

New on the map this week are flights centered on the Western Australian capital, Perth. As well as doubling flights between Perth and northern tourist spot Broome, Virgin Blue is adding flights from Perth to Pilbara region towns Newman and Karratha, perfect bases for exploring the national parks and desert up there.

The new flights start in October and the probable prices haven't been announced yet, but they're bound to be lower than the small fortune people have been paying on these routes until now.

Related Stories:
· Virgin Blue Announces Major WA Expansion [Peanuts]
· Red Tape Worries V Australia [Jaunted]
· Virgin Blue coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: purpleairplane]