Virgin Australia

If you spot in Australia for the first time, you see two colors everywhere: the red and white of Qantas and the red of Virgin Australia. At first glance the two look similar, but Virgin Australia has a history all its own – from a small low-cost carrier through its own long-haul flights to bankruptcy and a restart as a lean 737 airline. This page shows you how to place the airline, which aircraft it flies and what to watch for at the spot.

Virgin Australia at a glance

Virgin Australia is Australia’s second-largest airline group – after the Qantas Group with Qantas and Jetstar. Its headquarters is in Brisbane, and the main hubs are Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Adelaide and Perth are further important locations, and the vacation destinations Gold Coast and Bali (Denpasar) are additional focus points.

In terms of business model, Virgin Australia sits between two stools. Founded as a low-cost carrier, it now offers a business class, lounges and a frequent flyer program, without the broad long-haul network of a classic network carrier. For spotters, one thing matters most: on mainline, Virgin Australia flies almost exclusively the Boeing 737.

The airline belongs to no alliance such as Star Alliance, oneworld or SkyTeam. Instead, it works with selected partners, most closely with Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines. Other codeshare partners include United Airlines, Air New Zealand and Virgin Atlantic. How such joint flights work is explained in the guide codeshare flights explained.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code VA: appears in the flight number, so on departure boards, tickets and schedules.
• ICAO code VOZ: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on flight trackers.
• Callsign VELOCITY: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio. The name is no coincidence – the frequent flyer program is called Velocity, too.

The regional subsidiary Virgin Australia Regional Airlines flies under the same codes. So on the tracker you can’t immediately see whether a 737 from the mainline operation or a regional jet is coming – but the aircraft type in the data record tells you.

History: from Virgin Blue to Virgin Australia

The story begins in late 1999, when the Virgin Group around Richard Branson announced a low-cost carrier for Australia. Co-founder was Brett Godfrey, who later remained the airline’s chief for a long time. The name Virgin Blue came out of a public naming contest. It plays on the red livery: in Australian slang, redheads are jokingly called “Bluey”.

The first flight took off on August 31, 2000, from Brisbane to Sydney. At launch, two Boeing 737-400s were ready, one of them leased from the then sister airline Virgin Express in Belgium. By autumn 2001, the market changed dramatically: Ansett Australia, for a long time the number two in the country, ceased operations in September 2001. Virgin Blue picked up a large part of the freed-up demand and grew quickly.

In the following years, the brand expanded:

Brand	Period	Role
Virgin Blue	2000–2011	Low-cost carrier for domestic flights in Australia
Pacific Blue	from 2003	Flights to New Zealand and the South Pacific, later absorbed into Virgin Australia
V Australia	2009–2011	Long-haul with the Boeing 777-300ER, mainly to the US
Virgin Australia	since 2011	Common brand for all divisions, with business class

In 2011 came the big overhaul: Virgin Blue became Virgin Australia, with a new livery, new uniforms and a business class. The airline wanted to specifically win business travelers and take on Qantas more directly. Besides the 737, it also flew Embraer E170s and E190s back then, Airbus A330-200s for domestic long-haul routes like Sydney–Perth, and the Boeing 777-300ER on routes to Los Angeles.

Bankruptcy and restart

On April 21, 2020, Virgin Australia entered voluntary administration – the COVID pandemic had brought air traffic almost completely to a standstill. In the same year, the financial investor Bain Capital took over the company. The new owner brought a radical simplification: the long-haul fleet of A330s and 777s disappeared, as did the first-generation Embraer jets. The low-cost subsidiary Tigerair Australia, in which Virgin had held a stake since 2012 and which it had fully controlled since 2014, was shut down.

What remained was a lean airline with an almost pure 737 fleet for Australia and the nearby region. Two further steps followed in 2025: Qatar Airways came in with a minority stake, which the Australian authorities had approved in February 2025. In June 2025, Virgin Australia then returned to the ASX stock exchange. Bain Capital and Qatar Airways remained major shareholders.

The fleet: almost all Boeing 737s

Since the restart, Virgin Australia has relied on a uniform mainline fleet of just over 100 Boeing 737s (as of 2026). The exact number keeps changing because new MAX 8s are being added and older aircraft are being stored – so take the figures as a rough guide.

Type	Role	Spotter tip
Boeing 737-700	Smallest 737 in the fleet, some taken over used from KLM	Shorter fuselage, only one overwing exit
Boeing 737-800	Backbone of the fleet, largest group	The classic with winglets, two overwing exits
Boeing 737 MAX 8	Newest generation, growing steadily	Serrated nacelles, split-tip winglets
Boeing 737 MAX 10	On order	Longest 737; delivery delayed by pending certification

The Boeing 737-800 is the type you see most often. Used 737-700s from KLM replaced the regional subsidiary’s Fokker 100s from 2023. With the 737 MAX 8, Virgin Australia is modernizing the fleet step by step; the 737 MAX 10 is on order as the largest version. The manufacturer of all types is Boeing.

737-700, 737-800 or MAX 8? How to tell them apart

At Virgin Australia, the livery hardly helps, because all three versions wear the same design. The differences are in the fuselage length, doors and engines. You can find a detailed comparison of all generations in the guide telling the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart.

The number of overwing exits is the simplest feature for telling the 737-700 and 737-800 apart – it works on photos, too, which you sort later at home. Between the 737-800 and MAX 8, the engines decide.

Virgin Australia Regional Airlines

Besides the mainline operation, there is a regional subsidiary of its own: Virgin Australia Regional Airlines, based in Perth. It emerged from the Western Australian airline Skywest, whose roots go back to the 1960s. Virgin Australia took over Skywest completely in 2013 and renamed it.

The regional subsidiary flies mainly in Western Australia, where charter flights play a role alongside scheduled service. Fokker 100s were a familiar sight for a long time and have since been replaced by used 737-700s. In addition came used Airbus A320s from the fleet of the former Tigerair Australia. Since 2025, Virgin Australia Regional has been taking delivery of new Embraer E190-E2s, which replace the older aircraft. For spotters in Perth, that is exciting: here you meet types you wouldn’t otherwise see at Virgin Australia. How to tell the E-Jet generations apart is shown in the guide telling Embraer E-Jets apart.

How to recognize Virgin Australia

Since the 2011 overhaul, the fleet has worn a design with a white fuselage, red script and a red tail. One detail to remember is on the nose: the “Flying Lady”. The figure in a wide-brimmed hat waves an Australian flag – nose art that is typical of the brand.

Many aircraft also carry names of beaches and places in Australia – such as “Bondi Beach” or “Cable Beach”. If you like collecting, you can log these names alongside registrations. There are also special liveries every now and then, for example for round fleet anniversaries or advertising partners. The guide finding special liveries gives you tips on tracking such designs down.

All aircraft are registered in Australia and carry the registration prefix VH-. How registrations are structured in general is explained in the article understanding aircraft registrations.

Spotting Virgin Australia

Your best chances are at the three hubs of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. There, Virgin Australia flies a dense schedule, especially on the routes between the big cities, which are among the busiest domestic connections in the world. At Sydney Airport, Shep’s Mound is a popular spot. What else to keep in mind in Sydney is in the guide plane spotting in Sydney.

For midday photos, Australia has a quirk: in the Southern Hemisphere, the sun is in the north at midday. The light side of an airport is therefore a different one from what you’re used to in Europe. How to plan the sun position for your spot is shown in the guide on the sun position at the photo spot.

Besides Virgin Australia, in Australia you mainly meet the Qantas Group with QantasLink as its regional brand, Rex Regional Express and charter and regional operators like Alliance Airlines. That makes a spotting day in Australia more varied than the many 737s might suggest.

Common mix-ups

• Treating Virgin Australia and Virgin Atlantic as the same – both carry the Virgin brand but are separate airlines. Virgin Atlantic flies long-haul from the UK.
• Taking Virgin Blue for another airline – Virgin Blue is the former name of Virgin Australia.
• Equating a VA flight number to Doha with a Virgin aircraft – Qatar Airways operates these flights.
• Logging a 737-700 as a 737-800 – count the overwing exits: one on the 700, two on the 800.
• Using winglets as the only MAX feature – the serrated nacelles are more reliable.
• Taking an Embraer in Virgin colors for another airline – the E190-E2 belongs to the regional subsidiary in Perth.

Conclusion

Virgin Australia is Qantas’s challenger – and an airline with a surprising number of twists. The low-cost carrier Virgin Blue became an airline with a business class and its own long-haul service, and after the 2020 bankruptcy a lean 737 airline with strong partners. For spotters, that means: the livery is uniform, but the details are still worth it. Count the exits, look at the engines and keep an eye out for the regional fleet in Perth.