Low-cost airline Virgin Australia re-starts service as Virgin Blue

Low-cost airline Virgin Australia re-started service as Virgin Blue on August 31, 2000, with the backing of British businessman Richard Branson (founder of the Virgin Group) and Brett Godfrey.

Virgin Australia aimed to rival the dominance of Qantas, becoming Australia’s second largest domestic airline.

However, this was an extraordinary period for Australia’s commercial aviation market as the sector was experiencing a decline in international traffic owing to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the war in Iraq and outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in parts of Asia and Canada as summarized by the Australian government.

In 2000, Australia’s domestic market, and major routes also known as ‘domestic trunk routes'(a term used in Australian aviation to describe major routes with high demand and traffic) were dominated by four airlines. This consisted of legacy carriers Qantas Airways and Ansett Australia, and new entrants Virgin Blue and Impulse Airlines.

Despite stiff competition in the market, an opportunity arose, leading to Virgin Blue’s exponential growth and rapid gain of up to 30% of the domestic market share in Australia. aerotime.aero