Including the new additions, Virgin Australia’s mainline fleet now totals 77 aircraft, including 75 Boeing 737-800s and two slightly smaller Boeing 737-700s.
More than 10,000 people have received the jab at Auckland Airport’s drive-through vaccination center since it was established days after the New Zealand Alert Level 4 restrictions began.
It comes with the RAAF still in the midst of its biggest-ever evacuation mission to get Australian citizens out of the capital, which last week fell to the Taliban.
Construction is now already underway, with the first 500 beds to be available by the end of this year. The facility will be entirely completed by March next year, according to the Wagners.
In total, Qantas expects 10 of its 12 A380s to be back to performing regularly scheduled services by early 2024, while the remaining two are to be retired.
From mid-December, Qantas and Jetstar will reinstate international schedules between Australia and low-risk countries, including Singapore, the US, Japan, the UK, Canada and Fiji.