New Virgin Australia lounges in 2012 for Sydney, Gold Coast
By David Flynn, January 4 2012
Update | Virgin Australia has now opened its Gold Coast lounge, click here for our photo gallery and report.
Previous | Virgin Australia will continue its push to woo business travellers and frequent flyers this year with new airport lounges at Sydney and the Gold Coast, while its Perth lounge will also be expanded.
The Gold Coast lounge is slated to open “at the end of the second quarter” says Martin Daley, Virgin Australia Group Executive of Product and Guest Services.
Daley told Australian Business Traveller that the lounge will seat around 135 travellers in 675 square metres of space, making it slightly smaller than its Brisbane sibling.
The new Gold Coast lounge will be Virgin’s second regional lounge, following last month’s opening of Mackay, but will be “more like Melbourne and Brisbane” in its design.
While the entry will be on the ground floor of the airport the lounge itself will be located upstairs, nestled between gates 1 through 3, affording a good view of the airfield.
New “flagship lounge” for Sydney
By year’s end Virgin hopes to open the doors of its new “flagship lounge” at Sydney airport.
“That’s in the design phase now, we’ve still got a lot to work through” Daly told Australian Business Traveller. “It’s a big piece of work.”
The new lounge will share the clean, contemporary design of the slick Melbourne and Brisbane lounges created by Sydney-based architectural firm Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, and will be spread over two floors.
“The (current) main lounge is on the lower level, there’s another mezzanine level upstairs which the airport have been using for functions" TGZ’s Tim Greer told Australian Business Traveller earlier this year. “We’ll take over that space and have a two storey lounge.”
This unique layout could permit Virgin Australia to stage its work one floor at a time – for example, building out and then opening the upper floor, so that the current lounge on the ground floor can be renovated – rather than completely closing the lounge, as was the case at Melbourne and Brisbane airports.
“We’re looking now at how we stage that” Daley says. “There’s a fair bit to think about, (but) that’s the staging process we’re working through.”
Making more room at Perth
Also on the cards is an expansion of Virgin Australia’s Perth lounge, knocking down a wall to add an extra 100 seats to take the lounge’s total capacity to 250 travellers “ by the second quarter of 2012.”
However, the lounge won’t receive its own TGZ-styled makeover until Perth Airport opens its new Virgin Australia pier in 2014.
“When the new terminal opens in 2014 we’ll have a brand new lounge for that” Daley confirmed.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
04 Nov 2010
Total posts 670
I thought Gold Coast was due around March, seems they have pushed this back? Either way it'll be good to see this and especially if it's more like Brisbane and Melbourne. Can't wait to see the new Sydney lounge, two floors, wonder if they will make part of the upper deck into an exclusive lounge for Platinums and business class passengers just like Qantas has?
PS Welcome back AusBT, hope you guys had a good break, here's to plenty more great stories in 2012!
15 Apr 2011
Total posts 580
Nice little update! I'm curious about the Sydney lounge though -- from memory the upstairs area really isn't that large (though it's been 10+ years since I was in there during the Ansett days), so it will be interesting to see how they design it, and how they manage the logistics of the renovations (I wouldn't expect them to have a buffet/dining area upstairs, for example). Very exciting though, can't wait to have a look!
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
23 May 2012
Total posts 268
When will the Sydney lounge open? I heard it may contain an Invite+ area. I can't find anything about Invite+ on the Virgin Australia website.
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2555
'Invite+" is still hush-hush, Aero-Seat (and to be honest this might even just be a codename), so Virgin's not said a peep on it. But you can read what we know about Invite+ here. As for the Sydney lounge, the upstairs area is currently undergoing renovation, that should be open in a few months and then downstairs will be closed for its own makeover. Virgin expects the complete two-storey lounge will be open by year's end.
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