Virgin Australia cuts Phuket, Tigerair flies to Bali

Virgin Australia will cease operating its Perth–Phuket route and will transfer three of its Bali routes to Tigerair as part of a major revision of its short-haul international network.

The airline announced on Friday that Tigerair Australia, which is owned by Virgin, will embark on its first international flights on 23 March 2016. This will see the low-cost carrier take over the running of the Adelaide-Bali, Melbourne-Bali and Perth-Bali routes from Virgin Australia.

Under Tigerair, the frequency of the Melbourne and Adelaide routes will remain unchanged, at daily and five times a week respectively, but the Perth service will be reduced from eight to seven flights per week. Tigerair Australia will operate the routes using three new all-economy Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

Virgin Australia will continue to operate to Bali from Sydney, Brisbane and Port Hedland.

But from 1 February 2016, Virgin Australia will withdraw from the Perth-Phuket route. Instead, the airline will add more flights on routes to New Zealand and the Pacific region.

Three extra weekly flights to Christchurch will commence in Q4 2015, two from Sydney (effective 25 October) and one from Melbourne (from 6 November).

The airline will also add more seasonal capacity on its routes from Brisbane to Auckland, Dunedin, Wellington, Christchurch, Apia (Samoa), Honiara (Solomon Islands) and Nadi (Fiji). The Sydney-Nadi service will also be upgraded.