Virgin Australia will have a daily flight on its new Melbourne-Hong Kong service after securing additional landing and takeoff slots at the busy Chep Lap Kok Airport.
The current five times a week schedule will move to daily from November 12, Virgin said in on Thursday.
Virgin initially offered five flights a week when it launched the new service in July using Airbus A330-200s with a split schedule featuring either morning or midnight departures from Melbourne, depending on the day of the week. All flights from Hong Kong take off in the evening and land in Melbourne in the morning.
In August, the airline announced it would introduce a consistent flight schedule from October, with all flights departing Melbourne in the late morning/midday and returning from Hong Kong overnight.
This latest tweak announced on Thursday is a further improvement, with a daily service most favoured by business travellers and the corporate market.
“We’re thrilled to be able to offer travellers a daily schedule of flights to Hong Kong,” acting Virgin Australia Airlines group executive Rob Sharp said in a statement.
“We’ve already had great feedback from guests on our first-ever services to Hong Kong and we believe this will help us create an even more rewarding experience for travellers.”
However, there are still a number of different departure times, with takeoff from Melbourne either at 1100, 1130 or 1240 depending on the day of the week. Similarly, the scheduled Hong Kong departure is either 1950, 1955 or 2045.
Virgin operates the route as part of an alliance with HNA Group carrier Hong Kong Airlines, which offers connections beyond the Special Administrative Region to mainland China.
Hong Kong Airlines has its own services from Hong Kong to Cairns and the Gold Coast.
Cathay Pacific and Qantas are the other two operators on Melbourne-Hong Kong.
(An in-depth feature on Virgin Australia’s expansion into the Hong Kong and greater China markets appears in the August issue of Australian Aviation.)
Flight Number/Routing |
Days of operation |
Time of departure |
Time of arrival |
|
VA87 MEL-HKG
|
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday Sunday Friday |
11:00 11:30 12:40 |
17:35 18:05 19:15 |
|
VA86 HKG-MEL
|
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday Sunday Friday |
19:50 19:55 20:45 |
08:15(+1) 08:02(+1) 09:10(+1) |
