QLD quarantine scrap opens flight booking floodgates
Virgin experiences biggest FF points redemption since June
Virgin Australia reports Queensland flight bookings have rocketed following the state government’s decision to scrap quarantine requirements once the Sunshine State hits its 80 percent vaccination benchmark.
The airline recorded a 134 percent increase in overall bookings immediately after Premier Anna Palazszcuk’s announcement while traffic to its www.virginaustralia.com website rose over 100 percent.
Similarly, services between Melbourne-Sydney doubled following the Victorian Government announcement that fully vaccinated NSW residents will be able to enter the state from October 20.
The number of passengers using Velocity Frequent Flyer points to book flights also increased by 150 percent, the single largest day for points redemption since June 2021.
The airline most popular flights booked last week were:
Melbourne-Brisbane/Brisbane-Melbourne
Brisbane-Cairns/Cairns-Brisbane
Melbourne-Gold Coast/Gold Coast-Melbourne
Melbourne-Sunshine Coast/Sunshine Coast-Melbourne
Brisbane-Townsville/Townsville-Brisbane
A spokesperson for the airline said the result showed consumer confidence with almost half of all bookings made reflecting travel during December and January.
“Virgin Australia welcomes the arrangements foreshadowed by the Victorian and Queensland Governments to reopen their states to interstate travellers once vaccination thresholds are met.
“Already we can see travellers are excited by the prospects of flying again, which has been evident by the significant uplift in website traffic and bookings.
“Virgin Australia will continue to review our schedule and add flights in line with demand as travel restrictions ease.
“We’re also continuing to give travellers generous booking flexibility and just last week we announced the extension of our Flexible Flying Policy for travel to April 30, 2021.
“It means that travellers can have confidence to make a booking with Virgin Australia now knowing they can easily change it if they need to.“
Mike Parker-Brown is a UK-trained and qualified journalist and an award-winning travel communicator with more than 30 years experience.
Since 2002, Mike has worked as a freelance writer and PR consultant providing his services to major organisations in Australia and internationally in the tourism, aviation, hospitality, recruitment and export marketing sectors.
