Virgin Australia today announced it will introduce Business Class on all Trans-Tasman and Pacific Island routes from early 2015.

From March next year, customers will be able to experience Virgin Australia’s award-winning Business Class product on a number of new routes, with Sydney-Auckland to be the first to launch.

The progressive roll out will see ten aircraft in the airline’s Boeing 737 fleet be refitted with the 2-2 Business Class seating configuration, as well as the introduction of priority services including priority check-in and boarding.

This extension to Trans-Tasman and Pacific Island routes, including Virgin Samoa, will complete the airline’s premium service offering across its mainline domestic and international network.

Virgin Australia Chief Customer Officer Mark Hassell said: “We recognise the importance of premium services for our customers and today’s announcement signals the completion of our Business Class roll out across the mainline Virgin Australia network.

“We remain committed to enhancing the customer experience and driving increased innovation through our products and services. Just as we led the market with innovations such as Premium Entry into our Sydney lounge, Priority Boarding and wireless In-flight entertainment through your own device, this enhancement will complete our service on these important routes and marks another major milestone for our evolving product offering.

“In fact, Virgin Australia’s latest research shows Australian travellers are more than twice as likely to recommend our Business Class product than that of our major competitor .”

“The introduction of Business Class on our key Trans-Tasman routes also allows us to deliver a more consistent customer experience in conjunction with our alliance partner, Air New Zealand,” Mr Hassell said.

Virgin Australia expects the progressive roll out of Business Class to be complete by April 2015. Business Class seats on Sydney to Auckland services are expected to go on sale before the end of year.

In February 2014, the airline was voted the Best Domestic Business Airline by Roy Morgan for the first time.