Virgin Australia renews GDS agreement with Sabre, resumes Melbourne services and drops flight sale

Virgin Australia has reaffirmed its longstanding relationship with Sabre with the renewal of the two companies’ global distribution agreement.

Under the renewed agreement, Sabre will continue to distribute Virgin flights and services through the Sabre GDS marketplace.

David Orszaczky, general manager of digital and distribution at Virgin, said: “Although international borders remain largely closed at the moment, there is a lot of pent-up demand and positivity in the domestic market.

“We’re committed to creating an ecosystem that delivers great value for customers and ensuring our agency partners can help deliver the many travel experiences we offer in their preferred channel.”

Rakesh Narayanan, regional GM of travel solutions/airline across the Asia Pacific at Sabre, said: “We are thrilled to reaffirm our longstanding collaboration with Virgin Australia at this important time for the carrier and for the travel industry.

“Our renewed agreement provides certainty to the travel industry that Virgin Australia’s travel agency content will continue to be available on the Sabre GDS, as well as being testament to the commitment of both Virgin Australia and Sabre to providing rich content through our global distribution network.”

In a further commitment to its agency partners, Virgin has also re-signed agreements with Amadeus and Travelport from July 2021.

Virgin has also welcomed the Queensland and NT governments’ decision to reopen their borders to Greater Melbourne by expanding frequencies and resuming several interstate routes.

The airline said additional frequencies between Melbourne and Cairns, Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast and Melbourne and the Gold Coast will be ramped up over the coming days to assist customers with last-minute school holiday travel.

Virgin will also be reintroducing its Melbourne-Darwin, Melbourne-Hamilton Island and Melbourne-Ballina/Byron Bay services these school holidays.

The airline has also dropped a flight sale for travellers to Tasmania, with fares as low as $69 until midnight (AEST) on 28 June, or until sold out.

Virgin’s ‘Binge on Tassie Sale’ is offering up to 30 per cent off one-way economy flights to Hobart and Launceston for select travel dates between July 2021 and April 2022 (terms and conditions apply, of course).

Featured image source: iStock/peterfz30