Virgin Australia looks for extra capacity to cover Qantas grounding

Virgin Australia has announced it will offer 3000 extra seats today between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Karratha to assist passengers stranded by the Qantas grounding. The announcement is on top of the 40,000 extra seats Virgin said it would offer over the next two weeks.

Virgin also said it was “in discussions with alliance partners Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and Delta Air Lines” with a view to adding extra capacity. The airline says options being explored include possibly operating Etihad Airways aircraft between Sydney and Melbourne and operating an Etihad Airways Boeing 777 between Abu Dhabi and Sydney, which will release a Virgin Australia Boeing 777 to operate between Los Angeles and Australia; operating Singapore Airlines aircraft on key domestic routes; and operating extra Air New Zealand aircraft on trans-Tasman routes in order to release Virgin Australia Boeing 737s for use domestically.