Virgin Australia reopened its Canberra airport lounge today, the final piece of the puzzle that is its slimmed-down domestic lounge network.

The move comes almost a year since the pandemic forced Virgin to shutter all of its airport lounges.

Under new owner Bain Capital, the airline has promised to continue to operate a domestic lounge network, albeit with a reduced size that focuses on the airports with the most frequent flyer travel.

As of today, Virgin is operating lounges in the following domestic airport terminals:

• Sydney
• Melbourne
• Brisbane
• Perth
• Adelaide
• Gold Coast
• Canberra.

The airline’s Cairns, Mackay, Alice Springs and Darwin lounge have been permanently closed.

Virgin Australia Lounge visitors currently enjoy complimentary snacks like sandwiches, salads and wraps, as well as drinks including barista-made coffee and alcoholic beverages (from noon).

Some facilities and services remain closed due to Covid, including showers, business centres and valets.

Virgin reopened its Adelaide lounge last month, which sports a fresh new look that will eventually be rolled out across the lounge network.

More information about Virgin Australia lounges, including the experience on offer and access rules, is available here.

To get news like this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter:

Australia’s struggling regional tourism businesses are set for a rush of new customers as part of a federal government $1.2 billion support package announced today.

At the core of the package will be 800,000 half-price airfares around the country. The government will subsidise flights from 1 April to 31 July to the following 13 destinations/regions:

• Gold Coast, QLD
• Cairns, QLD
• the Whitsundays and Mackay region, QLD
• Sunshine Coast, QLD
• Uluru, NT
• Alice Springs, NT
• Launceston, TAS
• Devonport, TAS
• Burnie, TAS
• Broome, WA
• Avalon (Geelong), VIC
• Merimbula, NSW
• Kangaroo Island, SA.

Flights, routes and the total number of tickets will be driven by demand. Qantas and Jetstar say they expect to offer around 550,000 of the discounted fares, with Virgin Australia and regional carriers expected to release the remainder.

The discounts will be off the average fare and will be available on airline websites from 1 April.

Only interstate travel will be covered by the program – so, for example, Perth residents won’t be able to get subsidised fares to Broome but will to the other destinations.

The support package announcement comes as the government’s JobKeeper program is due to end on 31 March, with fears of job losses across the tourism sector.

The package also includes loan extensions for small businesses, and funding to help Qantas and Virgin Australia maintain more than 8,000 core international aviation jobs until overseas travel resumes.

To get news like this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter:

Hot on the heels of the announcement yesterday that Qantas and Jetstar plan to resume international flights in October, we thought it was worth highlighting to our readers that it’s possible to speculatively book some reward seats now and then change or cancel them later for free if necessary.

Given that reward seats are limited, especially during peak travel periods like Christmas and school holidays, and there is a lot of pent-up demand for travel, if you’re planning to use Qantas Points to fly, you should book sooner rather than later. The offer of free changes and cancellations is another incentive to do so.

Under Qantas’ Fly Flexible policy, when you use Qantas Points to book a Classic Flight Reward on Qantas or Jetstar flights before 30 April 2021, you can change your plans until 31 January 2022.

If you wish to change your travel dates, Qantas will waive the change fee. Otherwise, if you wish to cancel, Qantas will waive the cancellation fee and the total Qantas Points used and any taxes, fees and carrier charges paid will all be refunded.

This policy applies to both domestic and international flights. Qantas and Jetstar plan to resume flying to almost their entire pre-Covid international networks by October, as we covered yesterday.

More information about Qantas’ Fly Flexible policy is available on its website here.

To get tips like this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter:

Qantas and Jetstar are now planning to restart regular international passenger flights to most destinations from 31 October 2021 – a four month delay from the previous (and overly optimistic) estimate of July, which had been in place since mid-2020.

The date change aligns with the expected timeframe for Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout to be effectively complete.

Capacity will be lower than pre-COVID levels, with frequencies and aircraft type deployed on each route in line with the projected recovery of international flying. International capacity is not expected to fully recover until 2024.

Qantas says it remains in close consultation with the Federal Government around the reopening of international borders and will keep customers updated if further adjustments are required. Federal officials have recently suggested borders may be closed until the end of 2021.

Qantas is assessing the use of digital health pass apps to help support the resumption of COVID-safe international travel. The CommonPass and IATA Travel Pass smartphone apps are being trialled on the airline’s international repatriation flights.

Qantas network

Qantas is planning to resume flights to 22 of its 25 pre-COVID international destinations including Los Angeles, London, Singapore and Johannesburg from 31 October 2021.

Qantas won’t initially resume direct flights to New York, Santiago and Osaka, but remains committed to flying to these three destinations eventually. In the meantime, customers will be able to fly to these destinations under codeshare or oneworld arrangements with partner airlines.

Jetstar network

Jetstar plans to resume flights to all of its 13 international destinations. Frequencies will be adjusted in line with the projected recovery of international flying.

Trans-Tasman

Qantas and Jetstar are planning for a significant increase in flights to and from New Zealand from 1 July 2021 as travel bubbles open.

Additional flexibility and extension of credit vouchers    

Qantas has today announced additional flexibility for international bookings to enable customers to book flights with confidence.

Qantas’ updated Fly Flexible policy (previously only available for domestic and trans-Tasman flights) now applies to international flights booked from today until at least the end of April 2021. Customers will be able to change the dates of their flight for free to any available date (up to 355 days in advance).

Qantas has also extended credit vouchers to enable travel until 31 December 2023 on domestic or international flights, with Jetstar doing the same for vouchers issued due to COVID-19 disruptions.

To get news like this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter:

Virgin Australia reopened its Adelaide lounge today after a much-anticipated multi-million dollar makeover.

Designed by Brisbane’s WMK Architecture, the stylish 283-seat Adelaide space sports a fresh look that will eventually be rolled out across the lounge network.

Virgin says it sought to remain true to its brand by creating a warm, authentic and inviting environment for frequent flyers.

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka commented: “We know our capital city lounges are highly-valued by our frequent flyers and we’re reimagining the experience in a very Virgin way. Not only is the new Adelaide Lounge the best airline lounge at Adelaide Airport, but it’s fun, relaxed, and a place that everyone will feel welcome and comfortable.

“We plan to make significant investment in our lounges over the next few years. The new lounge we’ve unveiled today will be the foundation for the Virgin aesthetic and experience we will roll out across the network.”

Guests are greeted by a bright, airy entrance and foyer before moving into the versatile space.

The lounge features a central café seating area which transforms into a wine bar at night.

Separate dining areas with diverse functionality have been built adjacent to servery areas to cater to guests’ eating preferences, including large social tables, and banquette seating for more private dining.

A dedicated work area dubbed The Library features workstations with PCs, printing facilities, power sockets, and desk lamps, offering a functional environment to work on the fly – or at least it will when Covid restrictions permit.

A chill-out zone adjacent to The Library called the Gallery Lounge offers up lounge chairs and a large flat-screen television. Meanwhile, another space called the Sunroom features a mixture of other seating arrangements.

And another area dubbed The Long Stay is tucked away from the main entrance and provides more seating options.

The bathrooms look quite stylish as well.

To coincide with the opening, Virgin Australia has today launched a new and fresh menu for guests, featuring a selection of sandwiches, salads, wraps and healthy snacks, prepared on site. An enhanced menu will be implemented at all Virgin Australia lounges in the coming weeks.

The lounge is now open for eligible travellers. For all the info on how to get in, visit Virgin’s website here.

To get news like this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter:

Qantas and Virgin Australia are both launching new routes and increasing flight frequencies in time for the Easter holidays.

From 1 April 2021, Qantas will commence three new routes to both Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay (Ballina):

• Melbourne to Coffs Harbour – flights will operate daily with Qantas’ Boeing 717 aircraft, adding more than 1,750 seats on the route each week
• Brisbane to Coffs Harbour – flights will operate four days per week with the turboprop Q400 aircraft, adding around 600 seats on the route each week
• Canberra to Byron Bay – Qantas’ first ever direct service connecting the two destinations, offering two flights per week with the turboprop Q400 aircraft. Flights will initially operate in April and Qantas will look to continue the service from July in line with demand.

Qantas is offering special fares for flights on the new routes from $129 one-way.

Virgin Australia is launching new direct services between Adelaide-Sunshine Coast (four per week) and Melbourne-Ballina Byron (up to six per week), which will initially operate across the Easter holiday period from 29 March 2021 until 25 April 2021, with lead-in economy class fares available from $129 one way.

These flights will be operated by Boeing 737 aircraft.

Like Qantas, Virgin is also increasing frequencies on popular holiday routes such as Cairns, Hamilton Island, Whitsunday Coast (Proserpine), Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Ballina Byron (Byron Bay), Launceston, Hobart, Broome and Kununurra.

To get news like this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter: