Virgin Australia have announced they will commence services from Brisbane to the regional cities of Bundaberg and Moranbah in the next 8 weeks. Virgin Australia will be flying ATR 72 turboprop aircraft on these routes.
Moranbah is situated in the middle of the Bowen Basin, a major resource area. Virgin Australia will operate two daily return flights on weekdays commencing April 2 2013, increasing to three daily return flights from April 15. There will also be one return service every Sunday.
Bundaberg is currently only serviced by Qantas subsidary Sunstate Airlines. Virgin Australia will commence their daily return service to Bundaberg on May 4 bringing competition to the region.
Virgin Australia is also upgrading its Brisbane to Perth services from May 15. Two of the three daily services will replace Boeing 737 aircraft with the much larger Airbus A330.
The website Australian Business Traveller is reporting Virgin Australia is considering upgrading its Perth-Sydney services to all Airbus A330 aircraft to cope with demand.
http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/about-us/media/2013/VA_ANNOUNCES_BNE_BUNDABERG/
http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/about-us/media/2013/VA_ANNOUNCES_BNE_MORANBAH/
http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/about-us/media/2013/VA_A330_BNE_PERTH/
http://www.ausbt.com.au/virgin-australia-plots-all-airbus-a330-upgrade-for-sydney-perth for media releases.