Virgin Australia is changing the schedule for its daily Brisbane-Darwin flight in an effort to streamline connections for travellers arriving into Brisbane from the top end.
From 15 April 2014 the daily flight VA459 will leave Brisbane at 9:30am instead of the current 8.45pm departure – yes, that's a near-12 hour change – reaching Darwin at 1.20pm.
The VA446 return leg will be wheels up from Darwin at 2.05pm to reach Brisbane at 6.15pm, "allowing customers to connect through to nine domestic destinations within three hours of arrival into Brisbane" according to Virgin Australia.
The change has been designed to improve connections for travellers arriving into Darwin on Silkair, the regional wing of Virgin Australia partner Singapore Airlines.
The Brisbane-Darwin service is operated by a Boeing 737 which features Virgin Australia’s wireless in-flight entertainment system for beaming video and music directly to a passenger's own device free of charge.
Read: Flight test – Virgin Australia's new wifi entertainment system
"We know timing is one of the most important considerations for travellers and we believe this day time service will be very popular, offering more convenient connections to all major hubs around Australia" said Virgin Australia Chief Commercial Officer Judith Crompton.
“Darwin is a growing commercial hub, with Virgin Australia providing direct flights from Darwin to four domestic destinations, equating to a total of 54 flights in and out of Darwin per week" Crompton added.
Not uncoincidentally, low-cost airline Tigerair Australia – which is now controlled by Virgin Australia – today announced that it will begin daily Brisbane-Darwin and Brisbane-Cairns flights from April 15 next year, along with a Brisbane-Adelaide service from 11 March.
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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.
20 Oct 2011
Total posts 77
I think the reasons given are a bit of spin... there are better connections ex BNE arriving first thing in the morning , as DRW-BNE has for years, especially to LAX, NZ and the Pacific. You can't expect significant traffic from SIN to swap aircraft in DRW instead of SQ (and EY)'s non stop A330s.
It's more about giving Tigerair the BNE-DRW red eye pairing.
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