Virgin Australia's New Airbus 330 takes Australian Domestic Travel to New Heights

The airline will receive the first two new aircraft direct from the manufacturer Airbus this month and a third later in the year, creating a fleet of five Airbus 330 aircraft by the end of 2012.

The aircraft will operate trans-continental services from Sydney and Melbourne to Perth and are ideally suited to medium-haul travel, with wide and spacious cabin interiors, lie-flat Business Class seats in a two-two-two configuration, luxury leather seating and LED mood-lighting throughout the cabin.

Virgin Australia Chief Executive Officer John Borghetti said the introduction of the new Airbus 330 product would take the standard of domestic travel to a new level in Australia.

"We are focused on becoming Australia's airline of choice and key to that is creating a consistent experience of relaxation and comfort across all of our aircraft, complemented by the best of service.

"These new Airbus 330 aircraft will be the flagship of our domestic fleet, providing Business and Leisure travellers with the kind of experience that is valued on longer flights.

"Earlier this year we commenced our Business Class offering across most of our domestic routes and the feedback has been outstanding, reinforcing our strategy of bringing competition to all sectors of the Australian market", Mr Borghetti said.

The new aircraft is scheduled to go into service from 15 May 2012 and will form an important part of the Business Class end-to-end customer experience that includes kerbside valet parking; lounge access; award-winning in-flight entertainment and gourmet dining.

Renowned brand director Hans Hulsbosch and the team worked closely with Airbus in Toulouse to create the new interiors from the ground up. The result is a look of contemporary luxury with simple, bold colours capturing the vision of the brand which is young, vibrant, yet sophisticated.