Virgin Australia will begin direct flights between Melbourne and Hong Kong on July 5, going up against incumbents Qantas and Cathay Pacific as the challenger spreads its international wings.
The flights will run five days a week – on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday – and adopt an unusual split schedule with some flights leaving Melbourne mid-morning and others shortly after midnight.
The return flights will all be overnights, departing Hong Kong shortly before 8pm to reach Melbourne at 7.20am the following day.
Here's the official roster, for which tickets will go on sale Wednesday March 22.
Virgin Australia flights from Melbourne to Hong Kong
- flight VA87 will depart Melbourne at 10.25am every Monday, reaching Hong Kong at 6.05pm; and 9.40am every Wednesday, landing in Hong Kong at 5.20pm
- flight VA89 will depart Melbourne at 12.35am – yes, that's half-past midnight – every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, arriving in Hong Kong at 8.15am
Virgin Australia flights from Hong Kong to Melbourne
- flight VA86 will depart Hong Kong at 7.50pm every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, arriving into Melbourne at 7.20am the following day
Virgin Australia has yet to advise which lounges at both Melbourne and Hong Kong its business class travellers and top-tier frequent flyers will be able to use, although it's expected that Hong Kong Airlines' Club Bauhinia lounge will be on that list.
The China connection
The VA89 flights which arrive into Hong Kong of a morning will dovetail neatly into routes from Hong Kong to mainland China on Hong Kong Airlines and Hainan Airlines, which are part-owned by Virgin stakeholder and Chinese aviation colossus HNA Group.
There will be some connections to China after the early evening arrival of VA87 but they'll see you checking into your hotel close to midnight – so this flight is more likely to find favour among travellers staying put in Hong Kong, at least for that first night.
Virgin is expected to codeshare its flights with Hong Kong Airlines, and Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti considers the inbound market from Hong Kong and China as integral to the route's success.
“Virgin Australia’s entry into Hong Kong and Greater China is a key pillar of our international strategy, allowing us to tap into Australia’s fastest growing and most valuable inbound travel market" Borghetti says.
“Melbourne is an international city in its own right and hosts some of Australia’s biggest and most spectacular events. We look forward to showcasing this great city to inbound visitors from Hong Kong and beyond."
Taking on Qantas, Cathay Pacific
"Cathay and Qantas have got (Hong Kong) by the throat" says Virgin Australia group CEO Borghetti.
"We intend to break that duopoly and bring competition not only from the price side but also from the product side."
Virgin will roster Airbus A330 jets onto the route, tempting corporate travellers with the promise of modern and spacious business class seats with direct aisle access for every passenger.
Providing the necessary number of aircraft for Melbourne-Hong Kong means that the Brisbane-Perth route will lose its sole A330 service, leaving all of those transcontinental treks running on the smaller and less comfortable Boeing 737.
Qantas has its own Airbus A330 and similarly-spec'd Business Suites running daily between Melbourne (departing 11.15am ) and Hong Kong (arriving 5.40pm).
However, during peak travel seasons Qantas shifts to the larger Boeing 747 and its inferior previous-generation Skybed seats.
Eating into Cathay Pacific's share of the market will be a challenge for Virgin, as the Hong Kong flag carrier not only boasts a similarly well-appointed business class seat but has more flexibility to suit the traveller's own timetable through three daily flights – one of which is its new Airbus A350.
Business travellers on a budget may also lean towards Cathay Pacific, as it's the only carrier regularly offering premium economy on the route.
None the less, Melbournians will consider Virgin's move as a welcome break to the entrenched Oneworld duopoly – and be watching for the inevitable price war sparked by the arrival of a new player.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
26 Feb 2016
Total posts 96
Okay it is final. Happy to see that the timetable is all what I wanted -- Friday night MEL departure, and for return, weekday morning arrivals in Melbourne. Hope to book one soon.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
12 Jun 2011
Total posts 148
Ummmmm right... that schedule is not at all confusing. Different times of the day, throw in a bit of after midnight. On to a winning formula there!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Oct 2011
Total posts 467
Now all they need to do is use different lounges on different days!
31 Mar 2016
Total posts 619
Pretty obvious why the VA arr timings(And therefore dep timings) for MEL->HKG are all over the place across the wk:
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
08 Nov 2011
Total posts 121
Is it that necessary to fly to HKG if you can't get decent timed slots and have to have your planes sitting on the ground doing nothing? All I see this exercise doing is continue to bring down yields and drive up VA costs. Neither of which they can afford.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
14 Aug 2015
Total posts 34
Why does the Virgin Flight take 2 hours longer in flying time than the QF service ? i.e. the Wednesday departure. Virgin really needs some additional aircraft to fill the needs for this expanded international service they are 1 777 short for the LA route and looks like they need 2 more A330's for these expansions
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
26 Feb 2016
Total posts 96
Maybe they can borrow some from HNA, but it is unlikely if they can secure funds to buy new/nearly new ones when they're continuously losing money.
31 Mar 2014
Total posts 397
I hope Virgin do well on this. They certainly need it to. However with such a messy schedule, I don't foresee this being successful.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 Nov 2011
Total posts 359
Gee, Virgin are now mirroring their lounge policy when it comes to flight schedules.....confusion reigns!
03 Aug 2015
Total posts 58
VA clearly struggled to get slots in HKG - how long until that 3rd RWY is built?*
31 Mar 2016
Total posts 619
@log0008:
14 Nov 2015
Total posts 44
Redeye in both directions on some days. Long time for the aircraft to sit on the ground.
31 Mar 2016
Total posts 619
@thelongroad:
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 Feb 2014
Total posts 143
It's great to see VA giving MEL-HKG a go, It will be hard for them to take some customers from QF and CX but a thumbs up if they do. I feel like they could of had more successful out of BNE with technically only 2 daily flights, not including the CNS connection & with CX's non-stop flight being pretty much a midnight departure.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
26 Feb 2016
Total posts 96
As local airlines, HNA and its subsidiaries have advantage on flying into small cities in China (small cities in China's scale) because they maintain better relationship with local govs, and also because small cities sometime have joint civilian/military airports, where foreign airlines are impossible to land.
31 Mar 2016
Total posts 619
DBPZ:
United Airlines - Mileage Plus
29 Jan 2011
Total posts 157
Interesting to see that the arrival and departure times from HKG will actually allow connection with the Virgin Atlantic flights to and from LHR.
I wonder if VA will be entering a codeshare arrangement with VS for SYD-HKG-LHR return?
14 Jul 2016
Total posts 7
Interesting, although it would be MEL-HKG-LHR
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
11 Oct 2014
Total posts 691
Given VAH applied for and were granted 7 slots to HKG, it will be interesting to see what happens to the 2 unoperated slots? What are the options?
Without daily service to HKG (ex MEL) and with an inconsistent timetable, I think that VA might be forced into an unproductive price war with the existing competitors to establish a serious presence in this market. How that will pan out will also bear watching IMHO.
03 Aug 2015
Total posts 58
I believe they were granted regulatory permission to operate daily flights to Hong Kong not slots at the airport.
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1029
That's right. They asked for, and got, 7 (of the total 70) rights to fly to HKG each week for Australian airlines.
The ability to use a given runway at a given time is unrelated to the permission to fly.
The permissions are a use them or lose them deal however. With this announcement, there are 2 rights remaining assigned to VA that aren't used. While they have the rights for 5 years, if they aren't used within a given time period, they'll have to give them back to IASC.
12 Dec 2012
Total posts 1029
"sit and hold" isn't an option. The flight slots will have to be handed back to IASC if they aren't used.
The right limits don't apply to ADL, DRW or CBR (or CNS, OOL), they only apply to PER, SYD, BNE and MEL.
If VA wanted to start CBR-HKG flights, they wouldn't need flight rights from IASC (just runway slots from HKG).
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
14 Sep 2012
Total posts 382
Inconsistency is the standard Virgin story, next I'll be reading you have to use a different partners lounge depending on which day/night you fly.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 May 2011
Total posts 362
I wholeheartedly agree!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Mar 2014
Total posts 219
I like the midnight flights but why couldnt they be at 10:00 or 11:00pm?
31 Mar 2016
Total posts 619
@airADL:
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Mar 2014
Total posts 219
Flx1 QF used to run one that got in at 6am off memory
23 May 2012
Total posts 35
I think it is a half arsed schedule - 5 flights with 2 timelines. You need daily at a given time to win, don't you?
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
01 Apr 2013
Total posts 3
A friend of mine who is an air hostess on the west to east coast virgin A330 flights told me, her and some of her work mates that had previously worked on the Perth - Abu Dabi route had been asked if they were interested in applying for the new Hong Kong routes. The conditions were they had to relocate to Melbourne or Sydney, because that's where they would be flying from. Maybe Sydney is on the cards after all?
28 May 2016
Total posts 127
Your friend lied to you because VA axed the PER-AUH flights before they started...
23 Oct 2014
Total posts 238
Clearly they need to Launch the service with 5 services a week due to slot constraints in HK,and will build to daily as soon as they can. All new routes grow and develop over time.
31 Mar 2016
Total posts 619
Totally agree and in fact typical re new route launch on widebody by any carrier worldwide. Progressively adding frequency only after seeing initial route financial performance is the norm. Many folks forgot when QF launched SYD-DFW, it also wasn't daily fm the start. Even for SYD-SFO recently 'restarted' by QF but already served daily by competitor for yrs, QF is still not daily today to match the competition.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
29 Jan 2016
Total posts 8
Will this qualify as "international short haul" for the purposes of the free upgrades to business for Platinum FFs?
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
17 Mar 2016
Total posts 42
It will be interesting in how much Cathay Pacific will want to fight and lower their prices on this route considering the hammering they just had from their stockholders from their last poor profit announcement. While a short term discount would be on the cards, a sustained price war is something CP would want to avoid.
31 Mar 2016
Total posts 619
Unless VA define "short haul' as sectors upto 9hrs or beyond like MEL-HKG. If it does, VA would be the 1st in the industry to do that.
10 Aug 2015
Total posts 122
Agree with @djzc. I reckon BNE would have been a better choice for Virgin Australia. BNE have a lot less flights to HKG compared to Melbourne so Virgin have a lot better chance in succeding in the market. Anyway good luck to VA and hopefully it will last longer that 6 months!
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
17 Mar 2016
Total posts 42
The problem with BNE is that their new partner Hong Kong Airlines operates 3 flights per week from OOL, so it might have been considered too close and might impact on each other's turf.
23 Apr 2015
Total posts 3
And right on queue QF launches Rush Hour fares to HKG. Bring on the fare wars!
30 Mar 2016
Total posts 8
Any word on whether the VA flights will codeshare with VS or DL?
31 Mar 2014
Total posts 397
If there was word, I am almost certain it would have been reported
23 Jun 2011
Total posts 85
So it appears their return flights will connect nicely with VS from LHR. Result. Now to find out if they'll code-share.
David/AusBT do you know when today they're available - it's the 22nd today.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
28 Jul 2013
Total posts 81
Quick one - there is or isn't PE on the proposed flights?
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
18 Jun 2013
Total posts 24
There isn't PE.
31 Mar 2016
Total posts 619
Fares & booking available now on VA website. Done some playing around and noticed some interesting aspects re round trip J fares @ least for the mth of Jul(route launch mth):
23 May 2012
Total posts 35
Just tried to book one way, HK to Melb, and the Virgin website refuses to cooperate. Looks like I need to call them....
23 May 2012
Total posts 35
Called them for a fare quote from HK to Melb on 15 July. While the VA website shows return from Melb at around $1,700 each way in J, the quote one way out of HK was $3,300 EACH. VA seem to try this on, a return J to LAX can be less than the one way home from LA. How many other airlines do this?
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