Virgin Australia has unveiled its biggest ever summer-holiday schedule, releasing 19,000 flights between 15 December 2025 and 26 January 2026—an average of 370 services per day. Announced on 4 December, the plan adds three per cent capacity year-on-year, supporting surging leisure and visiting-friends-and-relatives demand.
Network highlights – • Domestic focus on the ‘sun belt’, with extra frequencies to the Gold Coast, Whitsundays and Cairns. • Short-haul international boosts to Bali, Fiji and Queenstown, timed to connect with redeployed 737-MAX 8 aircraft. • Pop-up lounges in peak ports and 185 newly trained staff across cabin, engineering and ground operations.
![Virgin Australia gears up for record Christmas with 19,000 flights and 3.2 million seats]()
Operational resilience – CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said the airline has built contingency rosters to mitigate air-traffic-control staffing shortages and La Niña-linked weather disruptions. A spare aircraft will be positioned in Brisbane, while on-call engineering teams have been doubled at Perth and Melbourne.
Business travel relevance – Although the schedule is leisure-heavy, increased frequency on core trunk routes (Sydney–Melbourne, Brisbane–Perth) provides additional reward-seat inventory and flexible departure windows for corporate travellers. Travel-management companies are already adjusting preferred-carrier matrices to capture lower negotiated fares during the capacity surge.
Take-aways – Employers should update travel-policy blackout dates and remind staff that popular coastal flights may still sell out despite the extra seats. Status-match promotions and bonus-points offers tied to the holiday operation could yield savings for mobility budgets.
Network highlights – • Domestic focus on the ‘sun belt’, with extra frequencies to the Gold Coast, Whitsundays and Cairns. • Short-haul international boosts to Bali, Fiji and Queenstown, timed to connect with redeployed 737-MAX 8 aircraft. • Pop-up lounges in peak ports and 185 newly trained staff across cabin, engineering and ground operations.
Operational resilience – CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said the airline has built contingency rosters to mitigate air-traffic-control staffing shortages and La Niña-linked weather disruptions. A spare aircraft will be positioned in Brisbane, while on-call engineering teams have been doubled at Perth and Melbourne.
Business travel relevance – Although the schedule is leisure-heavy, increased frequency on core trunk routes (Sydney–Melbourne, Brisbane–Perth) provides additional reward-seat inventory and flexible departure windows for corporate travellers. Travel-management companies are already adjusting preferred-carrier matrices to capture lower negotiated fares during the capacity surge.
Take-aways – Employers should update travel-policy blackout dates and remind staff that popular coastal flights may still sell out despite the extra seats. Status-match promotions and bonus-points offers tied to the holiday operation could yield savings for mobility budgets.
