• New codeshare partnership allows guests from the United Kingdom and Australia to travel effortlessly between the two countries on Virgin airlines, connecting via Hong Kong or Los Angeles.
• Codeshare offering will include Virgin Australia’s Sydney-Hong Kong services that will commence operations on 2 July, in addition to the Melbourne-Hong Kong services already on offer.
• New connections on Virgin Australia’s domestic network have also been added to the codeshare, including Adelaide-Sydney, Adelaide-Melbourne and Canberra-Melbourne.

Virgin Australia and Virgin Atlantic have today put flights on sale under their codeshare partnership, which will allow guests to travel effortlessly between Australia and the United Kingdom (UK).

This is exciting news for the airlines’ customers, as the codeshare will provide them with more flexibility when booking long-haul services between the two countries.

Key benefits under the codeshare include:

• enabling guests to travel between Australia and London on Virgin flights, connecting through Los Angeles or Hong Kong;
• providing guests travelling from the UK with options for convenient connections to eight cities on Virgin Australia’s domestic network; Adelaide, Brisbane,  Cairns, Canberra, Gold Coast, Hobart, Melbourne  and Sydney;
• expanding the customer offering to include new connections on Virgin Australia’s domestic network, being Adelaide-Sydney, Adelaide-Melbourne and Canberra-Melbourne;
• allowing guests to organise all flights, including the connecting flights, under the one booking, with a single check-in and baggage drop;
• allowing Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members to earn miles, and Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer members to earn Points and Status Credits when flying with either airline under the codeshare; and
• providing eligible members of the Frequent Flyer Program with full access to Virgin Australia Lounges and Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses.

Virgin Atlantic offers up to three daily services between London Heathrow and Los Angeles, with a daily service to Hong Kong. Both routes are operated on its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, the newest aircraft in its fleet.

Virgin Australia operates up to 18 flights per week between Australia and Los Angeles on its Boeing 777-300ER fleet. It also offers daily services between Melbourne and Hong Kong¹ and will be launching daily flights between Sydney and Hong Kong on 2 July 2018 using its A330-200 aircraft, which features the award-winning Business Class product, ‘The Business.’

Group Executive of Virgin Australia Airlines, Rob Sharp, said that guests should look forward to a seamless travel experience when flying between the two countries.

“Virgin Australia is always looking for opportunities to provide more options to our customers and to improve the end-to-end travel experience. We are thrilled to be working with Virgin Atlantic to provide travellers with our renowned Virgin service and product all the way between Australia and the UK,” he said.

Shai Weiss, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Atlantic, also welcomed the new flights under the codeshare, saying that travel between Australia and the UK will appeal to more customers than ever before.

“This codeshare partnership means even more customers can travel around the world using only Virgin airlines. It will also streamline the travel experience by providing a single check-in and baggage drop for the entire journey. We look forward to welcoming our Australian guests on board and we couldn’t think of a more fitting way to do it than with our sister airline,” he said.

Flights are now available to be booked on www.virginaustralia.com and www.virginatlantic.com.

¹Daily return services between Melbourne-Hong Kong will operate until 2 July 2018, at which point they will reduce to five return flights per week.