Virgin to increase Canberra traffic
A report in The Australian, says that Canberra’s chances of being an initial destination for Virgin Blue’s new Embraer jets rose further yesterday after the airline opened a new lounge in the nation’s capital.
The fifth lounge in the airline’s network is a sign of its determination to make further inroads into the tightly held but lucrative federal government market.
The airline already has lounges in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney as part of its New World carrier strategy to lure higher-yielding customers to its services.
Many of these are involved in small to medium enterprises but the airline has made no secret of its wish to take corporate and government customers away from Qantas.
It has so far captured only 5per cent of the overall government market and, while it has much higher shares in some states, Canberra has remained elusive.
The airline yesterday touted the new lounge as the next step in its “earnest campaign” to lure more business and government passengers.
“The Lounge” is available free to annual members and the newly minted top-tier members of its Velocity frequent-flyer program.
Casual visitors can also pay $30 to access its business facilities, barista service, gourmet snacks and selection of beer and Australian wines.
The Canberra lounge is a redevelopment of the Ansett facility and can comfortably cater for 150 people at a time.
It is far bigger than Virgin’s current schedule warrants and the airline notes it allows for future growth in flight frequency.
Virgin Blue chief executive Brett Godfrey said the airline had been mindful of feedback from its existing government and business passengers that a lounge was high on their lists of needs.
“We listened to that feedback, invested heavily in new infrastructure and we are hopeful the opening of The Lounge in Canberra will provide even more incentive for corporate guests to choose Virgin Blue and save taxpayer and business dollars while getting all the benefits of a high-quality, low-cost carrier,” he said.
Virgin takes delivery of its first Embraer next week and has yet to say what destinations will be targeted by the new jets. However, it clearly sees the Embraers as an attractive alternative to Qantaslink’s Q400s and a worthy rival, at least in terms of passenger comfort, to the Boeing 737.
The new planes also give the airline added flexibility to mix and match aircraft on routes that can support a 737 at some times of the day but not others.
However, the airline will initially take a softly-softly approach to the new jets as it introduces them to its fleet and gets comfortable with them.
The first aircraft will not go into service until October and the jets will initially fly a less-than-optimal average of about six hours a day on the existing network.
They are not expected to start on new routes until February.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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