When Virgin Blue launched its services on 31 August 2000, it was with the intention to be the first sustainable budget airline. It has been able to carve this niche for itself so far. It started modestly with two aircraft which it has obtained on leases from its sister airline, Virgin Express. Today, the airline has grown to become the second largest airline in Australia. Virgin Blue achieved this by adopting measures which have helped it save costs while giving the passengers the opportunity to fly at a much lower rate.
Virgin Blue’s fleet of aircraft stands at 53 and consists of aircraft that can aptly be described as state of the art or even next generation. The fleet is made up of Boeing 737 as well as Embraer aircrafts. The airline has a practice of naming its aircraft and true to this practice, has aircraft named Brissie Lizzie, Sassy Sydney, Prue Blue and Tassie Tigress amongst others.
The airline boasts of annual passenger traffic in excess of 15 million. It has achieved this by operating more than 2000 weekly flights to cities in Australia as well as eight international destinations which include New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu.
Virgin Blue is part of the vision of Sir Richard Branson who founded Virgin Records and then went on to mastermind the Virgin empire which now consists of several air carriers bearing the Virgin name and more.
