The Boeing 737 is the backbone of Virgin Australia’s fleet, operating the vast majority of the airline’s mainline flights (outside of WA).
Until recently, all of Virgin’s Boeing 737s have had an identical Business Class seating layout. This consistency is great for business travellers because they would always know exactly what they’re going to get.
There are slight variations between the number of Economy seats on the Boeing 737-700s and Boeing 737-800s, and some of the newer 737-800s have an extra row of Economy seats at the back. But if you booked Business Class, you could be sure of getting what you paid for even if the airline swapped your operating aircraft to a different Boeing 737.
This is no longer the case as Virgin has started taking delivery of a small number of Boeing 737-700 jets without a Business cabin.
These planes previously flew for KLM. Although Virgin has repainted and installed new seats on these aircraft, they don’t feature any Business Class seats.
The first of the ex-KLM Boeing 737-700s (VH-NBV) entered passenger service for Virgin Australia on 31 October 2022. A second aircraft (VH-NBP) arrived in Australia on 13 November and is expected to enter service in the coming weeks. Both aircraft are based in Brisbane.
Unfortunately for Virgin Australia passengers who had booked Business Class, these aircraft are now popping up on a variety of different routes. Over recent weeks, the first of the all-Economy 737s has flown from Brisbane to Mackay, Hobart, Adelaide, Cairns, Proserpine and Hamilton Island.
The all-Economy Boeing 737s are also being scheduled to fly from Perth to Launceston and Cairns over the upcoming summer.
For Economy passengers, there would be very little difference in the experience other than the lack of in-flight entertainment streaming. In fact, there are many more Economy seats with extra legroom available as Economy X on these Boeing 737-700s covers rows 1-4 and 11, the latter of which is the exit row. This means that 30 of the 138 Economy seats on board have extra legroom.
On flights that Virgin is planning to operate with all-Economy aircraft, Business Class is not being sold. However, the problem is that Virgin has been substituting these aircraft onto some flights that were previously sold as two-class services.
Passengers who had already booked Business Class tickets on those flights are being either downgraded or switched to other flights. Both options are inconvenient.
One AFF member only discovered their aircraft had been switched to one without Business Class after they tried to select a seat… and realised that Business Class no longer existed on the seat map. This member says that Virgin had not contacted them to inform them of the change.
Another AFF member was contacted by Virgin to advise that their Perth-Cairns flight had been downgraded and ended up rebooking in Economy.
Theoretically, if your Business Class flight was downgraded due to an aircraft change, you could request to be rebooked onto another flight (including via another city) to retain your Business Class travel. But this may not work for people who had specifically booked a direct flight at a certain time.
Virgin Australia has two other Boeing 737-700s in its existing fleet which do have 8 Business Class seats.
Virgin Australia’s Airbus A320s and Fokker 100s also have no Business Class
The two newly delivered Boeing 737-700s are not the only Virgin Australia aircraft not to have any Business Class seats. Virgin Australia’s Airbus A320s and Fokker 100s also feature all-Economy layouts.
Those two aircraft types are mainly used for mining charters and intra-WA flying. They rarely make an appearance outside of Western Australia.
But there are a few exceptions. Virgin Australia’s Airbus A320s operate selected (but not all) flights from Perth to Adelaide and Darwin. They also appear to be operating all flights between Perth and Hobart at the moment.
Some of Virgin Australia’s domestic flights are also operated by other airlines under a wet lease agreement. For example, Canberra-Sydney flights are operated by Link Airways and various routes out of Brisbane are operated by Alliance Airlines. These aircraft also lack a Business Class cabin.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Virgin Australia to lease more 737s
