V Australia, Pacific Blue folded into Virgin Australia today

Virgin Australia's international subsidiaries Pacific Blue and V Australia have today been folded into the larger Virgin Australia brand, with the virginaustralia.com website also receiving a makeover.

Business travellers who booked flights to Los Angeles or Abu Dhabi on V Australia or across the Tasman and to the Pacific Islands on Pacific Blue won't notice any difference on board yet, although the plane paintjobs and terminal signs will gradually change over to the new name.

New interiors for the planes -- which we hope includes a proper business class product across the Tasman and an improved long-haul business class on former V Australia flights -- will come within six months, Virgin Australia's CEO John Borghetti said today.

"Now that our international airlines are all operating under the Virgin brand, our focus is on redesigning the product in the air to ensure a first-rate travel experience across all of our airlines. We look forward to revealing the new designs in the first half of 2012," Borghetti promised.

So when travelling abroad with Virgin Australia, make sure you keep an eye and an ear out for the new names.

Australian Business Traveller passed through Wellington Airport today and spotted some new electronic signage and banners notifying passengers of the change:

Not a huge change at Wellington when compared with our Pacific Blue journey from Wellington to Melbourne via Brisbane last week:

Most signs have not been updated yet, with the majority still in Pacific Blue colours.

We've got the full details about the impacts of the changes on former V Australia flights, including terminal changes at LAX and what the interim paintjob looks like, but there's still no news on whether you'll be able to use Velocity Frequent Flyer points for long-haul upgrades. 

Polynesian Blue, Virgin Australia's joint venture with the Samoan government, became Virgin Samoa earlier today.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.