Our awards

May 2023: Virgin Australia has been awarded Best Cabin Crew for the fifth time in a row in the AirlineRatings.com 2023 Airline Excellence Awards and named number seven in the Top 10 airlines category.

Judged by editors with over 200 years of combined aviation experience, the Airline Excellence Awards recognises the gold standard in the airline industry with more than 350 airlines considered against a strict criterion spanning passenger comfort, innovation, value and safety.

December 2022: Virgin Australia recently was the top rated Domestic Australian Airline in Canstar Blue’s 2022 Domestic Airlines ratings, scoring five out of five stars in all but one category, including service.

July 2022: Virgin Australia Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka has welcomed the news the airline has been awarded Best Cabin Crew for the fifth year at the AirlineRatings.com Airline Excellence Awards. Virgin Australia was also named as one of the Top 10 airlines in the world, reflecting the judges’ views on the airlines that offer the best in comfort, innovation, value and safety for guests. 

July 2021: Virgin Australia Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka has welcomed the awarding of Best Cabin Crew for the fourth consecutive year at the industry-led AirlineRatings.com Airline Excellence Awards. Virgin Australia was also named among the top twenty airlines in the world, achieving a seven-star safety rating and demonstrable leadership in innovation and passenger comfort.

November 2019: Virgin Australia has been awarded Best Cabin Crew, in back-to-back years. Virgin Australia is also recognised as Best Economy Class Airline for 2020 and are named in the global Top Ten airlines.

November 2018: Virgin Australia has been awarded Best Cabin Crew and Best Economy Class for 2019 by AirlineRating.com. Virgin Australia’s redefined travel experience with its Economy X, Premium Economy and standout business class contributed to ranking number five in the Top Ten Airline Rankings.

November 2018: Virgin Australia has been awarded World's Best Cabin Crew for 2019 by AirlineRatings.com, and named number five in the Top Ten airline rankings as part of its Airline Excellence Awards. The awards are judged by seven editors with over 200 years’ industry experience, combines important safety and government audits, with 12 key criteria that include: fleet age, passenger reviews profitability, investment rating, product offerings, and staff relations.

September 2018: Virgin Australia has been awarded a five star rating by the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) for the second consecutive year. The rating puts Virgin Australia in the top nine per cent of airlines worldwide to be given a five star rating through direct passenger rankings and feedback. The Official Airline Ratings data collected across 470 passenger rated airlines consisted solely of verified passenger votes. Virgin Australia was also awarded Best Video Curation on its inflight entertainment system.

November 2017: AirlineRatings.com has named Virgin Australia's 'The Business' as the world's best, taking out Best Business Class 2018. It is the second consecutive year 'The Business' has won this award. Virgin Australia was also named in the Global Top Ten at number four.

November 2017: Virgin Australia has claimed top gong at the Inflight Asia-Pacific Awards, named Inflight Airline of the Year. Virgin Australia was recognised for our innovative approach to passenger experience including the introduction of wi-fi, Economy X, ‘The Business’ and our new innovative vision-impaired user interface.

September 2017: Virgin Australia has received the highest rating by the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) at their ceremony in the USA. APEX awarded a Five Star rating to Virgin Australia, based on passenger feedback, with only 12 percent of airlines worldwide receiving the votes required for a Five Star status.

Virgin Australia was also awarded the Best Video Curation based on our inflight entertainment content selection, beating Emirates and Air New Zealand, and we were also a finalist for Best Inflight Entertainment Innovation for our vision impaired user interface.

July 2017: Virgin Australia has been named Best Domestic Airline at the Australian Federation of Travel Agents National Travel Industry Awards for the second year running. The awards recognise and reward excellence in the Australian travel industry and are based on 5,000 industry travel agent votes. The awards are widely considered as the premier industry event of the year. 

July 2017: Virgin Australia was awarded Best Airline and Best Airline Staff in Australia/Pacific at the 2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards. Virgin Australia was also ranked 13th in the World Top 100 Airline List, the highest of any other Australian airline. The Skytrax World Airline Awards are the most coveted for the airline industry, and are a global benchmark of airline excellence. Winners are voted for by travellers across the globe who participate in the world’s largest airline passenger satisfaction survey.

April 2017: Velocity Frequent Flyer has been awarded Best Redemption Ability in the Middle East/Asia/Oceania region for the fifth consecutive year at the 2017 Freddie Awards. Velocity also claimed the title of Best Elite Program, Middle East/Asia/Oceania. The Freddie Awards are considered the highest honour a loyalty program can receive worldwide, with the winners determined by the votes of four million travellers and frequent flyer members.

November 2016: Virgin Australia was awarded Best Business Class for 'The Business' and Best Cabin Crew in the 2017 AirlineRatings.com Excellence Awards. Virgin Australia was also named in the Global Top Ten. AirlineRatings.com the world’s only airline safety and product rating website promotes excellence and innovation in the airline industry and the pinnacle of these efforts is its Airline Excellence Awards.

July 2016: Virgin Australia has claimed the title of Best Domestic Airline at the Australian Federation of Travel Agents National Travel Industry Awards. Judged by an independent panel made up of travel agents and travel industry suppliers, the AFTA NTIA celebrate and reward excellence in the Australian travel industry and are widely regarded as the premier industry event of the year.

May 2016: Virgin Australia was recognised for the second consecutive year as Australia's most attractive employer by Randstad. Each year, Randstad surveys over 10,000 Australians of working age, to gauge which sectors and companies they are most attracted to working for.

April 2016: The Velocity Frequent Flyer program has won three awards at the 28th annual Freddie Awards in Las Vegas winning Program of the Year, Best Customer Service and Best Redemption Ability for the Middle East and Asia/Oceania region Airline category.This is the fourth consecutive year Velocity has won Program of the Year and Best Redemption Ability, and third year for Best Customer Service. The Freddie Awards were created to recognize the world’s most outstanding frequent travel programs and almost 3 million ballots are cast annually.

December 2015: Virgin Australia was awarded Best Cabin Crew, Best New World Carrier and named in the Top 10 Global Airlines at the AirlineRatings.com 2016 Airline Excellence Awards. AirlineRatings.com is a comprehensive safety and product rating portal which celebrates and promotes excellence in the airline industry.

November 2015: Virgin Australia has been recognised as Australia's most respected company by the Australian Financial Review/Hay Group. The awards highlight organisations that are respected for their ability to succeed in today’s changing market and are voted on by CEOs, board members and executives across the country.

August 2015: Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program was awarded the 'Best Frequent Flyer Scheme' at the 2015 Australian Business Traveller Awards. Features including ‘parental leave’ pause to put your status on hold, family pooling of points and guaranteed economy reward seats for the annual family holiday secured the top spot for the Velocity program. Virgin Australia were also honoured with the title of the 'Best Cabin Crew' at these awards that recognise the trend-setters and game-changers in the highly competitive business travel market.

June 2015: Virgin Australia has been honoured with the ‘Best Airline Staff Service’ for the fifth consecutive year at the 2015 Skytrax World Airline Awards. Virgin Australia was also presented with placing second overall in the Best Airline category for Australia/Pacific. Skytrax World Airline Awards are coveted quality accolades for the world airline industry and World Airline Awards are a global benchmark of airline excellence, and widely known as the Passengers Choice awards.

April 2015: The Velocity Frequent Flyer program has been earned three awards at the 27th annual Freddie Awards in Atlanta winning Program of the Year, Best Customer Service and Best Redemption Ability for the Middle East and Asia/Oceania region Airline category. The Freddie Awards were created to recognize the world’s most outstanding frequent travel programs and almost 3 million ballots are cast annually, giving a voice to frequent flyers worldwide.

December 2014: Virgin Australia has been awarded the inaugural ‘Best New World Carrier’ in AirlineRatings.com 2015 Airline Excellence Awards. The award recognises airlines that are making game changing initiatives to redefine travel to meet rapidly changing passenger expectations. AirlineRatings.com is visited by millions of passengers from 232 countries and is the world’s only safety and product rating website, it celebrates and promotes excellence in the airline industry and the awards are a pinnacle of these efforts.

October 2014: Virgin Australia has been voted ‘Best Pacific Airline’ by the Travel Trade Gazette (TTG) Travel Awards, which recognises the best of Asia-Pacific’s travel industry including airlines, hotels and travel agents. More than 130,000 industry professionals and TTG readers from across Asia-Pacific cast their votes to determine this year’s winners.

July 2014: Virgin Australia has been awarded with ‘Best Airline Staff Service’ in the Australia/Pacific region at the 2014 Skytrax World Airline Awards for the fourth consecutive year, while also being recognised as second overall in the Best Airline category for Australia/Pacific. The ‘Best Airline Staff Service’ award represents Virgin Australia’s service performance across Ground and Cabin Crew and is measured against a global benchmark of airline excellence. Being recognised with a Skytrax award is the highest honour an airline can receive as the winners are selected from more than 18 million customer votes from around the world, measuring the product and services of over 200 airlines.

February 2014: Virgin Australia was recognised as Australia’s Domestic Business Airline of the Year for 2013 at the Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards. The Awards collect data over a 12 month period, canvassing the opinions of 50,000 Australian consumers and 22,000 business decision makers, in the world's largest ongoing single source survey.

October 2013: Virgin Australia has been recognised for outstanding customer service at the 2013 Customer Service Institute of Australia (CSIA) Awards.

The awards are Australia's top customer service awards and recognise excellence, best practice and innovation highlighting the importance of great service in today's business climate.

This year was the first time the CSIA also granted ESi awards. These awards are based on the results of an annual survey of more than 3,000 customers in which participants were questioned about the overall ease of doing business with organisations. Virgin Australia were recognised with the following coveted awards:

• ESi Award - Domestic Airline – Winner
• Service Excellence Award – Large Business – Finalist

May 2013: Virgin Australia has taken second place in the fourth annual Switchfly Reward Seat Availability Survey global survey. Conducted by IdeaWorksCompany, the survey ranks airlines by availability of reward seats to frequent flyers. The results were formulated by the number of times 'free' seats were available using frequent flyer points for two passengers travelling during specific dates and routes. Virgin Australia yielded free seats using Velocity Frequent Flyer Points 98.6% of the time.

April 2013: Virgin Australia has ranked 7th in AMR’s 2013 Corporate Reputation Index, securing the position of Australia’s top ranking airline for the second year in a row. Developed in conjunction with the Reputation Institute, the Corporate Reputation Index collates insight direct from consumers to rank Australia’s top 60 companies according to drivers of reputation such as products and services, innovation, workplace, leadership and financial performance.

April 2013: Velocity Frequent Flyer has won three awards at the 2013 Freddie Awards held in Washington DC. The Freddies are the most prestigious member-generated awards in the travel loyalty industry, and this year saw more than 2.9 million participants vote to recognise the world’s top travel loyalty programs. Velocity won Program of the Year, Best Redemption Ability and Best Elite Program, within the Middle East/Asia/Oceania region Airline category.

April 2013: Australian family travel magazine, Out & About with Kids has named Virgin Australia ‘best airline for children’ at its annual ‘Best of Family Travel’ Readers Choice Awards. The award recognised Virgin Australia’s facilities and services, and concerted effort to cater for the needs of families and to offer fares that help make flying with kids affordable. The awards acclaimed Virgin Australia’s aircraft, food and beverage offering and inflight entertainment.

February 2013: Virgin Australia has been recognised for the initiatives of Velocity Frequent Flyer, at the Loyalty Innovation Awards, presented at the Airline Business/Global Flight-organised Loyalty 2013 forum. Virgin Australia led the way in the loyalty management category after dynamically developing Velocity to sign up new premium members. Customer friendly innovations helped Velocity more than double status members during 2012. The event was judged by a panel of leading loyalty management specialists, and is the world’s leading airline travel loyalty management conference and forum.

February 2013: Virgin Australia was recognised as Domestic Airline of the Year for 2012 at the Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction awards. The awards are based on the world's largest ongoing single source survey, which includes the opinions of 50,000 Australian consumers and 22,000 business decision makers annually.

December 2012: Virgin Australia has taken out three of 11 categories in this year’s Australian Business Traveller Awards. Virgin Australia won Best Domestic Business Class, Best Transcontinental Service, and Best Frequent Flyer Program, and was acclaimed for boosting “competition in aircraft, seats and service, both in the air and on the ground”. The respected website acclaimed Virgin Australia Domestic Business Class for its “quality, consistency, comfort, service and value”; highlighted Virgin Australia’s international-grade seats and service on transcontinental routes; and claimed that Velocity Frequent Flyer offers more benefits geared towards the business traveller.

November 2012: Virgin Australia has ranked 3rd in Financial Review BOSS Magazine’s coveted Most Respected Companies list for 2012. This year’s big drivers of reputation revolve around responses to the challenges of volatility and changing business models, and awarded companies that demonstrated strong customer focus, tough decision making and adaptability. Virgin Australia CEO, John Borghetti was acknowledged by executives for launching the brand and successfully repositioning the airline as a viable alternative for business travellers.

October 2012: Virgin Australia has received two awards at the International Customer Service Professionals (ICSP) Awards. ICSP is the international advocate for service for both service delivery and customers. ICSP offers Australian and New Zealand service providers the opportunity to measure against ICSP’s best practice standards. In 2012 Virgin Australia was awarded:

• ICSP International Outstanding Business Award 2012 - Winner
• ICSP Large Business 2012 Platinum Award - Winner

October 2012: Virgin Australia was awarded four top honours at the prestigious Customer Service Institute of Australia's Service Excellence Awards, held in Melbourne on 24 October 2012.

Virgin Australia received awards for:

• National Customer Service CEO of the Year – John Borghetti
• National Customer Service Team of the Year – Virgin Australia Cabin Crew
• National Division of a Large Business – the Virgin Australia Lounge
• Queensland Large Business – Virgin Australia

The accolades recognised excellence, professionalism and outstanding achievement, as judged by a panel of senior business leaders actively involved in the customer service industry.

July 2012: Virgin Australia was awarded ‘Best Airline’ and ‘Best Staff Service’ in the Australia Pacific region at the prestigious 2012 Skytrax World Airline Awards, held in London on 13 July 2012. The awards considered over 200 domestic and international airlines, and canvassed the opinions of more than 18 million airline passengers. Skytrax Chairman and CEO Edward Plaisted said: “This is a great year of success for Virgin Australia. Securing the Best Airline Australia / Pacific and Best Airline Staff Service Australia / Pacific titles is something of a victory over the more established legacy carriers that have previously taken the top prizes in these categories”.

May 2012: Moving up seven spots for last year, Virgin Australia has ranked 6th in AMR’s 2012 Corporate Reputation Index. Developed in conjunction with the Reputation Institute, the Corporate Reputation Index’ ranks brands based on seven key drivers of reputation: products and services, innovation, workplace, citizenship, governance, leadership and financial performance. This year’s results were determined from a survey of nearly 6,000 Australians aged between 18 and 64, who placed Virgin Australia as Australia’s top ranking airline.

December 2011: Velocity, the frequent flyer program of Virgin Australia, was named best frequent flyer program for Australian business travellers in the AusBT Awards 2011, as voted by an independent panel of business travellers and frequent flyers, and the team at Australian Business Traveller magazine.

AusBT said: "On a sheer perks-for-points basis we don’t believe you can go past Virgin Australia Velocity as Australia’s best frequent flyer program".

December 2011: V Australia was voted Best Airline to Australia and New Zealand at the Eighth Annual Global Traveler’s Reader Survey Tested Awards. Announced on 1 December 2011, the GT Tested Awards were decided from results of a survey answered by 36,000 of the world’s most elite travellers – exclusively frequent business and luxury travellers. Global Traveler Publisher and CEO, Francis X. Gallagher, said: “The companies topping our list this year are the very best of the best”.

V Australia also took out the Best Business-Class Champagne category.

September 2011: Virgin Australia Group of Airlines’ international long haul airline, V Australia, won three of the 14 categories at the 2011 Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) Passenger Choice Awards in Washington, Seattle, including Best in Region (Asia and Australasia); Best Food and Beverage; and Best In Flight Entertainment User Interface. The Passenger Choice Awards were created by the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) to give voice to airline passengers. APEX encompasses a network of professionals that are committed to providing an outstanding airline experience for passengers around the globe.

September 2011: Virgin Australia won the Queensland Australian Business Arts Foundation Partnering Award in recognition of its partnership with Queensland Music Network (Q Music). Virgin Australia is one of the long-term supporters of BIGSOUND, the signature event of Q Music that attracts industry representatives and artists from around the world. Through their close partnership, Virgin Australia and Q Music have also developed initiatives to assist Indigenous artists break through to the mainstream music community through compilation CDs, performances, a dedicated in-flight Indigenous music channel and much more.

June 2011: Virgin Australia Group of Airlines’ international long haul airline, V Australia, was named winner of the Airline Staff Service Excellence Australia/Pacific award at the 2011 Skytrax World Airline Awards, in a ceremony held in the French Air and Space Museum at the Paris Air Show. Voted by over 18.8 million airline passengers from 100 different nationalities, the World Airline Awards™ are the most prestigious and respected quality recognition of front-line product and service standards across the world airline industry. With 200 airlines featured, the awards reflect customer satisfaction levels across 38 different items of airline front-line product and service.

October 2010: Loyalty program Velocity Rewards won the top two awards – “Best in Airline Loyalty” and “Loyalty Manager of the Year” - at the global 2010 Airline Information Mega Awards recognising marketing campaign excellence in the areas of Loyalty, Social Media and Ancillary Revenue/Merchandising.

Best in Airline Loyalty was awarded to Velocity for their Galactic campaign which offered one lucky Member the opportunity to go into space with Virgin Galactic. Loyalty Manager of the Year was awarded General Manager, Loyalty and CRM, Phil Gunter, for professional excellence in the field of airline loyalty marketing.

October 2010: Virgin Blue was voted by Australian businesses as the platinum winner of the Most Admired Customer Service Organisation at the annual Australian International Customer Service Professionals Awards held in Melbourne on 8 October, 2010.

A number of Virgin Blue Group team members were also individually recognised. Group Executive Product and Guest Services, Martin Daley, received a Platinum Award for Service Leadership. Guest Relations Team Manager, Matt Dixon won the Platinum Award for Customer Engagement and Virgin Blue’s Guest Contact Centre Manager, Bridget Costello, won awards in the Change Agent and Service Leadership categories.

September 2010: The Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) names V Australia as “Best Overall Passenger Experience” and “Best IFE User Interface” at the 2010 Passenger Choice Awards during the APEX Annual Conference and Exhibition held in Long Beach, California.

Voted on by the travelling public, the Awards are designed by APEX to recognise airlines for excellence in service, products and innovations. Passengers voted via an online survey launched in June 2010.

July 2010: Virgin Blue has topped the poll in Canstar Blue’s independent customer satisfaction survey of domestic airline users.
Virgin Blue took out the overall satisfaction category and most of the supporting categories to win Canstar Blue’s overall award for Most Satisfied Customers, Domestic Airlines.

Canstar Blue commissioned professional market researchers, Colmar Brunton, to survey airline customers. Customers were asked to rank each airline for price, service, flight punctuality, and flight availability.

Virgin achieved the top ranking in all supporting categories but one.

Friday 21 May 2010: Virgin Blue has been named ‘Best Low-Cost Airline’ (Australia/Pacific), in the 2010 prestigious Global Skytrax World Airline Awards.

Held at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, on 20 May, this is the fourth time the airline has won the award after taking it out in 2002, 2004 and 2008.

The awards feature more than 200 airlines from around the globe, with 17.94 million real travellers completing a comprehensive questionnaire. The World Airline Awards are highly respected for being the largest independent passenger survey of airline standards.

Friday 30 April 2010: Virgin Blue has again been rated by consumer group Choice as the nation's best domestic carrier for the second year running. More than 11000 Choice members scored the airline for service, entertainment and comfort. For further details see the choice website.

29 October 2009: Virgin Blue took off with five awards at the Customer Service Institute of Australia's Service Excellence Awards.

The awards are Australia's peak customer service awards and recognise excellence, best practice and innovation in customer service, highlighting the importance of great service in today's business climate.

Virgin Blue was honoured in the following categories:

• Best Large Business - QLD Winner - Virgin Blue
• Chief Customer Officer of the Year - National Winner - Martin Daley
• Customer Service Manager of the Year - QLD Winner - Stewart Tudor-Jackman
• Service Excellence in a Call Centre - QLD Winner - our Guest Contact Centre (GCC)
• Service Excellence in a Call Centre - National Category - Highly Commended - GCC

   

Tuesday 6 October 2009: After only seven months in the air, V Australia’s stellar in-flight entertainment (IFE) system has been voted BEST OVERALL in the small airlines category from a line-up of 38 commercial airlines from around the globe at the 21st Annual World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) Avion Awards in Palm Springs California.

In the same awards V Australia’s code-share partner, Emirates, was also voted ‘Best Overall’ for large airlines and ‘Best in Region – Middle East and Africa’ with sister airlines Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic receiving ‘Best in Region – Americas’ and ‘Best in Region – Europe.

The WAEA awards honour excellence in in-flight entertainment with categories voted on by 60,000 travellers from around the world. Winners are ranked highest by airline passengers in opinion polls administered online in 11 languages by Skytrax over a two month period.

Tuesday 6 October 2009: V Australia and Virgin Blue are both winners in the recent e-Travel Blackboard 2009 Readers Choice Awards with V Australia taking out ‘Best Business Class’ and Virgin Blue receiving 'Best Domestic Airline' in the same consumer driven awards.

For more information on the e-Travel Blackboard 2009 Readers Choice Awards see e-Travel Blackboard.

Tuesday 31 March 2009: Virgin Blue has been voted Australia's best overall airline in a poll of more than 4000 recent flyers by leading consumer group Choice. The survey of 4307 airline passengers who had flown domestically in the last three years found the budget carrier had an overall satisfaction rating of 68 per cent.
Virgin Blue relegated previous 2007 winner Regional Express to second-place, followed by Qantas, Jetstar and Tiger Airways.
For further information: see Choice site.

Thursday 30 October 2008: Virgin Blue's hugely popular frequent flyer program, Velocity Rewards, has been identified as one of Australia's top five loyalty programs by the country's leading brand activation agencies, Kaleidoscope. Velocity came in second after AMEX memberships rewards, for its ability to draw on other Virgin businesses and core partners to earn Members points as well as its great degree of flexibility.

Thursday 30 October 2008: Virgin Blue has been doubly honoured for its commitment to exceptional customer service when the airline was awarded the national Customer Service Institute of Australia’s 2008 ‘Australian Service Excellence Award for Large Business’ as well as being presented with the prestigious ‘Best of the Best’ award.

The Customer Service Institute of Australia (CSIA) is Australia's peak customer service organisation which is driven by and committed to the development of people, systems and standards to improve customer service. The CSIA awards recognise, promote and reward excellence, professionalism, outstanding achievement and innovation in customer service.

For further information on the CSIA Awards see the CSIA website.

Tuesday 23 September 2008: Virgin Blue has again been recognised in the 2nd Annual Budgies World Low Cost Airlines Awards accepting the top award for 'Best Passenger Experience'. The 2008 Awards, which are a highlight of the World Low Cost Airlines Congress hosted in the UK, seek to reward excellence in the aviation field and are judged by renowned and well respected industry consultants.

Virgin Blue also for the second year has received a Special Merit for Commitment to the Environment.

The award is very significant as it provides global recognition to Virgin Blue's genuine intent, vocal position and high profile campaign to raise awareness take a leadership role among airlines on environmental management initiatives.

For further information see The Budgies Award website

Wednesday 13 August 2008: Virgin Blue is celebrating a gold and two silvers after being named ‘Best Low-Cost Airline’ (Australia/Pacific), as well as receiving second place honours worldwide in the ‘World’s Best Low-Cost Airline’ and ‘Best Cabin Staff’ (Australia/New Zealand) categories, in the 2008 Skytrax Awards.

This is the third time Virgin Blue has taken out Australia's 'Best Low-Cost Airline' gong in the prestigious Skytrax awards, having been awarded the same title in 2002 and 2004.

For further information on Skytrax see World Airline Awards

Tuesday 8 July 2008: Virgin Blue is flying high after receiving two top airline awards at the 2008 afta (Australian Federation of Travel Agents) National Travel Industry Awards (NTIA).

For the third year running Virgin Blue has taken out Australia’s ‘Best National Airline’ and Australia’s ‘Best Regional Airline’ awards over finalists Qantas for the national award and REX and Qantaslink for the regional award. On top of the two awards Virgin Blue was also inducted into the afta NTIA Hall of Fame.

afta represents the majority of travel agents in Australia and the annual travel industry awards recognise the industry’s leading companies from a range of travel sectors including airlines, hotels, travel agents, car rental companies and wholesalers.

For further information, please see the AFTA website.

Tuesday 29 April 2008: Velocity’s hugely popular ‘any seat, any time’ redemption promise has won Virgin Blue’s Frequent Flyer program the ‘Best Award Redemption’ title among all airlines in the Asia Pacific region in the 2008 global frequent flyer awards, the Freddies.

It’s the third consecutive time Velocity has won the award and this year the program was also awarded the ‘Rising Star’ accolade in the ‘Industry Impact Awards’ which honour the programs or individuals that have had, or will have, the biggest impact on the industry in coming years, as well being named a runner up for the ‘Program of the Year’.

Please see the Freddie Awards Website for further information on the Freddies.

24 January 2008: Virgin Blue has been named the Low Cost Airline of the Year (Asia Pacific) in the Budgie$ Best in Class Awards announced overnight at the 5th Annual Asia Pacific Low Cost Airline Congress in Singapore.

The Budgie$ Best in Class Awards, which are open to all low cost airlines in the Asia Pacific region, recognise and reward the overall quality of the airlines service from the booking experience, check-in, in-flight experience, ticket pricing and routes provided.

Other areas also taken into consideration during judging include the airlines brand recognition and loyalty, customer satisfaction, scope of service offered and business sustainability.

Virgin Blue was nominated in the category of Low Cost Airline of the Year, along with REX, Jetstar, Jetstar Asia, Oasis (Hong Kong Airlines), Tiger Airways and Viva Macau, and was chosen as the overall winner by a panel of independent industry analysts and experts from around the globe.

For further information on The Budgie$ Best in Class Awards see the Terrapinn Awards Website.

3 November 2007: Virgin Blue was voted joint winner of the 2007 Air Quality Achievement Awards run by the Queensland Branch of the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand. Virgin Blue received the award for its significant contribution to developing and improving an awareness of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change within industry and the community and the need to take action.

For further information see the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand website.

20 September 2007: Virgin Blue has been recognised for services to the environment when it was awarded the Special Merit Award for Commitment to the Environment at the recent Budgies Best in Class Awards in London.

The annual Budgie Awards recognise the global leaders, innovators, creative talents, and pioneers among airlines in or close to the low-cost airline sector industry.

The award provides global recognition to Virgin Blue's genuine intent, vocal position and high profile campaign to raise awareness and take a leadership role among airlines on environmental management initiatives.

16 July 2007: Virgin Blue has again taken out two top airline awards at the 2007 AFTA (Australian Federation of Travel Agents) National Travel Industry Awards for Excellence after winning the very same titles in 2006.

The Awards recognise the leading companies from a range of travel sectors including airlines, hotels, travel agents, car rental companies and wholesalers. The award criteria is based on a combination of factors including customer service, product and innovation.

A record number of nominees were received for this year's Awards, with the finalists nominated by travel agents who then vote for their favourite out of the shortlist based on personal experience in their dealings with the company from both their own and their client's (the traveller's) perspective.

For further information see the AFTA website.

30 April 2007: Virgin Blue's loyalty program, "Velocity", has taken out the "Best Award Redemption" title (Asia Pacific region) for the second time in two years. The program was also ranked in the top five in seven out of the nine categories, including running second for "Best Bonus Promotion" and third for "Program of the Year" and "Best Website".

The prestigious awards were announced at the recent 19th Annual Freddie Awards in the United States which are designed to acknowledge excellence among frequent travel programs in the airline, hotel and credit card industries.

Please see the Freddie Awards website for further information on the Freddies.

February 2007: Virgin Blue has been voted as one of the top five companies in the Harris Interactive Inc survey of the nation’s most reputable firms with fourth place rankings for both the 2005 and 2006 annual surveys. The reputation quotient (RQ) study measures corporate reputation, corporate innovation, sincerity and social responsibility.

For further information see: Harris Interactive/AsiaPacific

8 March 2006: Virgin Blue is flying high after winning a prestigious international marketing award. The airline received a second place award for its Online Retail Campaign at the Caples Awards ceremony in New York.

The campaign was based on a suite of online characters in an office situation. All of the executions had a short, funny animation involving one or more of the characters and each animation ended on a super, that when rolled over, streamed Virgin Blue fares.

For more information on the Caples Awards see the Caples Awards Website.

12 December 2006: Virgin Blue has been honoured in the 2006 Melbourne Airport Environmental Awards, taking out the 'Best Environmental Initiative' category which recognises a specific project or initiative that has contributed to the enhancement or protection of the environment.

The Award specifically relates to the fit-out of Virgin Blue's Melbourne office, which was designed to minimise the environmental impact of day to day operations while addressing long-term and sustainable improvement.