Virgin Australia announces new flight route between Melbourne and Hong Kong
Tickets on sale tomorrow 22 March 2017.
Australian carrier Virgin Australia has today confirmed it will be commencing direct flights between Melbourne and Hong Kong, opening up more of Greater China to its passengers.
Tickets for this route go on sale tomorrow 22 March, with the first flights taking off on 5 July 2017. When they do, Virgin will provide five return journeys per week. These will operate on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with the first flights taking off from Melbourne in the morning, departing at 12:35am on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, 9:40am on Mondays and 10:25am on Wednesdays.
Return flights depart at 7:50pm from Hong Kong every day that flights operate.
This new route will use the dual-aisle Airbus A330-100, which features Virgin Australia's award-winning business class suite as well as 255 economy seats.
This announcement follows an alliance proposal between Virgin Australia and HNA Aviation, Hong Kong Airlines and HK Express. If approved, Virgin Australia passengers will be able to reap the benefits of being able to connect to 13 destinations in mainland China on these partner airlines.
Currently, Qantas and Cathay Pacific are the only other airlines to offer direct flights between Melbourne and Hong Kong.
While there's no word yet on the price point for these Virgin Australia fares, Qantas currently has fares starting from $609 one-way for July departures, while Cathay Pacific's one-way July departures start at $895. This gives us a rough idea of how much the Virgin Australia flights will cost.
For passengers flying with a Velocity card, you'll be happy to hear that you will be eligible for velocity points and status credits as these flights will be operated by Virgin Australia.
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