Virgin Blue relocates into new home

Virgin Blue celebrates a major milestone today, moving from the Domestic Express Terminal to its new home at Sydney Airport's former Ansett facility.

The move is the last step in ensuring Virgin Blue will be able to grow to further challenge Qantas' dominance across the country.

As promised, Virgin Blue will use the extra capacity to bring more low fares to the people of Sydney, with the introduction this week of a new daily direct Sydney-Launceston flight as well as a third daily service to Perth.

Among the benefits for Guests, the move to the new terminal will provide:

· Access to 30% more check-in desks meaning shorter queues and faster check-in during peak travel periods

· Individual spacious and comfortable boarding lounges for departing Guests

· 6 priority boarding gates compared to 4 at the DET with access to further gates to allow for continued growth

· Guests will have the opportunity to use aerobridges or, weather permitting, access to efficient dual point entry and exit via front and back stairs.

· A significantly larger and more spacious facility with a range of cafés, bars, shops and lounge areas

· Convenient dedicated gates for Melbourne and Brisbane departures.

Virgin Blue Chief Executive Brett Godfrey said, "Today's move completes our national terminal upgrade which now means we have larger and more comfortable facilities in every major port. The DET served us well during our initial launch period but it clearly wasn't designed to handle the volume we had to put through it."

He continued, " We are extremely grateful for the unwavering support of our team members and our loyal Guests who stuck with us through challenging times. We look forward to operating from such first class premises while still being able to keep the air fair."

Virgin Blue will operate nearly 100 flights a day in and out of Sydney, with half hourly services between Sydney and key business cities such as Melbourne and Brisbane during peak times, and hourly services at other times throughout the day.

Virgin Blue now has room to grow and is looking closely at launching flights from Sydney to new destinations to offer even more low fare options to and from the New South Wales capital.

"With this facility now operational, Virgin Blue can launch the extra service to Perth and the new flights to Tasmania. We will also look to offer additional low fare opportunities for the people of New South Wales", he finished.