Virgin Australia is the second-largest airline down under (after Qantas Group), and calls Brisbane its home, where it has its HQ. The airline serves all major cities in the country and has a small, but growing international network. The airline recently saw a 25% investment from Doha-based Qatar Airways, which has enabled the airline to return to long-haul flying through a wet-lease agreement.

Following COVID-19, the airline was forced to ground the majority of its fleet and retire its international operations. Previously, the airline had operated a network of international services to the likes of Asia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, and North America. Following its entering bankruptcy proceedings and eventually being bailed out by Bain Capital, this saw the airline’s future on edge.

Since then, QR has now stepped in as a major shareholder, and the future is looking brighter for this Virgin airline. Data for this analysis is from Cirium, an online aviation analytics company.

Long-Haul Flights For Virgin Australia Operated By Qatar Airways 777-300ER

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What makes the Virgin International network unique is that its long-haul services are operated through a wet-lease agreement with Qatar Airways. This has been speculated as an alternative approach for QR to circumvent the strict flight caps that foreign airlines face when operating to Australia. This has seen the Qatari carrier limited to a total of 28 round-trip flights to the four major Australian cities.

These flights are sold under VA flight numbers, operated by Qatar Airways crew and aircraft through a wet-lease agreement. While the airline had paused a number of these services during the 2026 Iran Crisis, Sydney and Melbourne to Doha now operate, with Perth and Brisbane to Doha set to return in December.

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The longest route in the airline’s network is that of Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) to Doha Hamad International Airport (DOH), operated daily by the Boeing 777-300ER. All QR-operated services are noted below:

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While at present there are no firm plans for Virgin to acquire its own long-haul aircraft, the airline has continued to obtain new Boeing 737 MAX 8, and has an order for the MAX 10, which will support both domestic and short to medium haul international operations from Australia.

The airline’s longest flight with its own metal is that of Sydney to Ngurah Rai (Bali) International Airport (DPS), which it operates daily from the country’s largest city to this tourist hotspot. Australians love Bali, with all major Australian cities having non-stop services to the island either by VA or other carriers. The service from Sydney to Bali takes a total of 6h 45 min non-stop.

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Coming in with the same flight time is VA’s nonstop link from the country’s capital, Canberra International Airport (CBR), which sees a thrice-weekly service to Bali from Virgin, either with the MAX 8 or 737-800. Details of the three longest services with VA metal below:

9th And 10th Longest Routes Operated By Virgin

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Those familiar with the VA network would question why Melbourne Airport (MEL) to Bali has been missed out on the analysis so far. This is due to the airlines twice daily MAX 8 service to the Indonesian island, coming in with a slightly shorter flight time than those previously mentioned, with the non-stop flights taking a total of 6h 25m gate to gate.

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Finally, the longest domestic service, which is operated for mining reasons only, is that of a weekly connection from Brisbane Airport (BNE) to Karratha (KTA). The service is operated once a week by the airlines’ 737-800, and takes a total of 6h 10m as it crosses the Australian continent.

While VA doesn’t operate all its international services alone, the carrier continues to deliver a growing network of international and domestic flights to and from Australia. Have you flown on any of these routes before with VA? Let us know in the comments.