Virgin Australia has ramped up its New Zealand offer for Australians with two new routes launching across the Tasman. Its inaugural Melbourne to Queenstown flight departs today at 9:30am, a day after the inaugural Sydney to Wellington flight departed.

Virgin Australia Airlines Group Executive, Rob Sharp, said that in addition to these two new routes, the airline has also added extra services across several of their key Australia to Auckland routes, and launched a seasonal service between Newcastle and Auckland.

“Almost 1.5 million Australians travel to New Zealand every year, and we’re thrilled to provide an additional 40,000 seats for Australians to make the trip across the Tasman.

“As an airline it’s important to us that we support tourism by facilitating travel along these popular routes, and support the growth of traveller numbers between Australia and New Zealand,” Mr Sharp said.

From today, all Virgin Australia fares between Australia and New Zealand will include a meal, drink, up to 23kg checked baggage, and access to inflight WiFi. This makes Virgin Australia the only airline to offer inflight WiFi across the Tasman.

As Virgin Australia continues to expand its travel offer for guests visiting New Zealand, the airline has also recently announced the launch of a new international lounge network in Australia and New Zealand, with seven international lounges rolling out from the end of October.

The new international lounge in Melbourne will be part of award-winning British lounge specialist, No1 Lounges’, new international brand ‘The House’, created in collaboration with Virgin Australia and Etihad Airways. This lounge will provide both self-service and a la carte dining options, as well as a fully tended bar. The new international lounges in New Zealand will be in Queenstown, Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington.

The new flights are on sale now at www.virginaustralia.com, with lead in fares starting from $423 one-way for Melbourne to Queenstown, and $396 one-way for Sydney to Wellington.