Virgin Australia has made plans to ground its entire international fleet this morning, as well as suspending all international routes from the end of March. Additionally, it has reduced its domestic capacity by 50% in a move to prevent further financial losses due to the coronavirus. The airline expects operations to return to normal by June 2020.
Virgin Australia has taken unprecedented action against the harsh market conditions and suspended all of its international flights starting from the 29th of March. The airline is following advice given by the Australian government to no longer fly to foreign countries.
Specifically, the Australian government issued a new warning late on Tuesday night, 17th of March, that all countries in the world are now considered stage four risk destinations. Thus, Australian airlines are not allowed to operate to them.
In terms of International routes, Virgin Australia will be suspending the following destinations:
Melbourne to Bali on March 29th.
Brisbane to Tokyo-Haneda on March 29th.
Melbourne to Los Angeles on March 20th.
Other international flights, such as Virgin Australia’s popular Sydney to Los Angeles route and New Zealand destinations will continue to fly until March 29th to enable foreigners and Australians to return home.
Additionally, the group will be reducing domestic operations in Australia by around 50%. These will not be route suspensions, but just reducing frequencies between capital cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane (which have hourly flights). These changes also affect the group’s low-cost arm Tiger Airways which will also see capacity reductions.
After the end of March, the equivalent of 53 aircraft (including all of its widebodies) will be grounded. This includes grounding of five Boeing 777, one Airbus A330 and fourteen Boeing 737 aircraft from the Group’s international fleet and twenty Boeing 737, six A320, two ATR and five Airbus A330 aircraft from the Group’s domestic fleet.
To help keep the company stable, the CEO has fast-tracked employee holidays, unpaid leave and redeploying staff onto other projects (such as focusing on aircraft maintenance). The CEO team is also taking no bonus’ this year and has had its salary reduced by 15%. The company has not ruled out some redundancies, however.
If you are booked on a Virgin Australia flight in the near future, the airline has the following steps in place.
Passengers who have bookings for flights through till the end of June 2020 can change their flight to a later date or location without a fee. Those who want to cancel can get travel credit without issue.
Passengers who are scheduled to fly on a canceled service will be emailed or otherwise contacted in the next 14 days.
If you have booked through a travel agent, then they will be your point of contact regarding your booking.
Due to the large number of people changing their bookings, Virgin Australia recommends only trying to contact them if your flight is in the next 24-48 hours.
