page_title: Virgin Australia
section_title: Regional expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Virgin Australia / Fleet / Regional expansion
caption_attribution_description: English: Virgin Australia's ATR 72 turboprop aircraft are operated on its behalf by Skywest Airlines under a wet lease agreement. The aircraft seen here is named Mission Beach and is the second of up to 18 ATR 72s to be built for Skywest. Digital image of VH-FVI taken by YSSYguy on 22 October 2011 at Sydney Airport and uploaded for use in the Virgin Australia article. Image edited with Picasa software. YSSYguy (talk) 11:04, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
context_page_description: Virgin Australia, the trading name of Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd, is an Australian-based airline. It is the largest airline by fleet size to use the Virgin brand. It commenced services on 31 August 2000 as Virgin Blue, with two aircraft on a single route. It suddenly found itself as a major airline in Australia's domestic market after the collapse of Ansett Australia in September 2001. The airline has since grown to directly serve 42 cities in Australia, from hubs in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
  The airline's headquarters is based in Bowen Hills, Brisbane, Queensland. It was co-founded by British businessman Richard Branson and former CEO Brett Godfrey.
  In 2011, the airline went through a massive transformation—the changing of its brand to Virgin Australia. This included the introduction of a new aircraft livery, new uniforms, and new onboard menu options. New wide-body aircraft were acquired for use to compete with Qantas, and the roll-out of business class across all the Virgin Australia network.
context_section_description: On 10 January 2011, Virgin Blue entered a 10-year strategic alliance with Perth-based Skywest Airlines (now Virgin Australia Regional Airlines), to operate up to 18 new Virgin-branded turboprop aircraft from mid-2011. On 23 February, it was announced that the aircraft would be ATR-72s, to enter service beginning in May 2011; they would allow Virgin Australia to both replace its fleet of Embraer 170s and introduce new regional routes. The turboprops would be operated by Skywest Airlines under a wet lease agreement. The May in-service date was not met, and in late July the first announcement was made concerning routes to be served. It was reported that the ATR-72s would be initially employed on services between Brisbane and Gladstone, Queensland; from Brisbane and Sydney to Port Macquarie in New South Wales; and on additional services between Sydney and Canberra.
  On 25 January 2012, Virgin Australia announced additional services between Brisbane, Proserpine, Rockhampton and Cairns. It wet leased two Fokker 100s from Alliance Airlines to operate these services. On 26 February 2013, Virgin Australia announced it would start flights between Brisbane and Bundaberg on 4 May 2013.
caption: Virgin Australia ATR 72 Mission Beach
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