IN BRIEF | Virgin Australia begins 'double daily 'Brisbane-Gladstone flights today.
It's not just a new route for the challenger airline, it's also the debut of the ATR turbo?prop (turbine-driven propeller) aircraft which will soon also join the Capital Connect shuttle service between Sydney and Canberra.
(Click here for an inside look at the fuel-efficient 68 seater, which Virgin Australia chief John Borghetti trumpets as "the best aircraft to operate on regional routes throughout Australia”.)
Virgin Australia exec Merren McArthur said the new twice-daily services will bring much-needed competition to the route, and connect business travellers "with the Virgin Australia domestic and international network and partner airline flights."
Virgin Australia will ramp up the service by adding a third weekday return service from Brisbane to Gladstone from 16 January.
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.
QF
01 Dec 2010
Total posts 3
If John Borghetti really thinks that the ATR is "The best aircraft to operate on regional routes throughout Australia" I wish he would get rid of the Embraers and put the ATR's on routes like ABX-SYD,he could even put the money where his mouth is and start operating them on ABX-MEL and provide some competition for Rex and their aging SAAB's.
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