A brief history of Virgin Blue and Partner Airlines
Since its launch in August 2000, Virgin Blue has gone from two aircraft offering seven return flights a day between Brisbane and Sydney to an airline group that includes international carriers Pacific Blue and Polynesian Blue flying to 23 Australian and eight international destinations.
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Pacific Blue, Polynesian Blue… and V Australia!
Pacific Blue operates the trans-Tasman and the Pacific Islands services, while Polynesian Blue airlines, a joint venture between Virgin Blue and the Samoan Government, operates direct flights to and from Apia out of Sydney and Auckland, with many other connections to other cities.
At the end of 2008, the premium, three-class international airline, V Australia, will begin daily direct flights between Sydney and Los Angeles.
Many alliances equal many flights with Virgin Blue
Virgin Blue did not start exploring interline or marketing alliances with other airlines until the demise of Ansett at the end of 2001. At this point, it began a codeshare agreement with United Airlines, which enabled United customers to fly from North America to any of Virgin Blue’s Australian destinations that United did not already serve. By 2006, Virgin Blue had further extended these arrangements, and formed frequent flyer agreements with Emirates, Hawaiian Airlines and Malaysia Airlines. Virgin Blue also has an Airline Agreement with Regional Express (Rex), for regional travellers.
Virgin Blue and Thai Airways link up
Thai Airways and Virgin Blue have recently announced that they had joined forces to provide a seamless product for travellers flying between and within Australia and Thailand. Virgin Blue will be the carrying airline from 13 key Australian destinations, via Thai Airway’s four international gateway ports of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to Bangkok and Phuket in Thailand. The Australian domestic destinations included in the interline agreement are: Adelaide, Canberra, Broome, Mackay, Rockhampton, Maroochydore, Cairns, Townsville, Hobart, Launceston, Ballina, Coffs Harbour and the Gold Coast. The intention is to extend the interline agreement to other Thai Airways destinations around the world.