Virgin Blue Set for Take-Off to Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, CA, Mar 31 (MARKET WIRE) --
Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa announced today that Virgin Blue International
Airlines will launch non-stop service between Australia and Los Angeles later
this year under a new open-skies agreement, continuing a trend among
international
carriers that are choosing Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as their
West Coast gateway and adding to the billions of dollars in economic activity
generated
in Southern California by overseas flights. Virgin Blue Airlines, through its
long-haul international carrier, V Australia, will use the first of its 10
weekly allotments to launch non-stop service from Australia to Los Angeles in
December, operating between Sydney and LAX.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Australia's Ambassador to
the U.S. Dennis Richardson were to sign the historic open-skies agreement at a
ceremony attended by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Mudd in Washington,
D.C., following announcements of the new air service in Sydney and Los Angeles.
The open-skies agreement was announced in February.

"I am thrilled that such an innovative airline offering value and
high-quality service to passengers has chosen Los Angeles as its front
doorto the U.S.," Mayor Villaraigosa said. "It is a privilege to benefit so
quickly from the open-skies agreement lifting market restrictions and
allowing more air travel choices between both countries."

Speaking upon his arrival from Sydney, where the new air service was
announced earlier in the day, Virgin Blue Airlines Group Chief Executive Officer
and Co-Founder Brett Godfrey praised the open-skies agreement and said that
with the initiation of the Australia-Los Angeles routes, air passengers will
be able to travel around the world on Virgin brand airlines.

"The Australia-U.S. Open Skies agreement is a great achievement and a
significant change after almost twenty years of restrictive bi-laterals," said
Godfrey.
"The agreement and the approvals granted underline the commitment of both
governments to extensively liberalize Australia-U.S. air services -- a
decision we strongly endorse and one which will bring significant benefits to
both countries.

"At Virgin Blue, we are particularly proud of the contributing role we
haveplayed as a catalyst for the establishment of the agreement. It will enable
us to bring long awaited, genuine competition to the trans-Pacific market,"
Godfrey
said.

The Virgin Blue chief executive added, "Eight years ago we launched Virgin
Blue,
the first Virgin airline in Australian skies with just two planes and 200
staff. Today, we fly 15 million passengers a year to over 30 destinations
in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific island countries. We believe we
have proven our ability through Virgin Blue to stimulate change and
innovation to the benefit of air travelers, tourism and the economy, and V
Australia will again be a catalyst for change, this time in the arena of
international aviation.

"V Australia is a brand new long-haul international airline for Australia,
focused
first on the U.S. through our chosen gateway of Los Angeles and bringing a
brand new style of service to the trans-Pacific route. It's tremendously
exciting and opens a whole new range of possibilities for travelers and for
tourism and trade development between our countries," Godfrey said.

The V Australia service will increase seat capacity between the U.S. and
Australia by 16 percent, which Mayor Villaraigosa said would continue to
stimulate new service and provide further benefits to passengers.

The V Australia flights are expected to generate an annual economic impact
of up
to $872 million to Southern California, and sustain as many as 4,340 jobs with
total wages of $218 million, based on the findings of a recent economic analysis
of overseas flights at LAX by the Los Angeles County Economic Development
Corporation (LAEDC).

V Australia will operate Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on the trans-Pacific
route, which
Mayor Villaraigosa said will be welcomed by LAX neighbors because it is "one of
the
most fuel efficient and green commercial aircraft available." V Australia will
take delivery of its first 777-300ER in September and it will be the first
and only carrier to operate the aircraft between Australia and the U.S.

V Australia is the ninth air carrier to begin or announce new
internationalservice to LAX in the past year, continuing a trend toward
increased international
air travel at LAX, which had consistently lost market share since 2000, and
solidifying LAX's position as the leading Asia Pacific gateway in the U.S.

In total, the nine carriers are adding 126 arrivals and departures per
weekat LAX, with an estimated annual economic impact of more than $5.6
billion.Overall, the new service will sustain 28,000 jobs paying cumulative
wages of
$1.4 billion.

Other new or recently announced international service at LAX includes:

-- Air France - seven round-trips per week to London, which began March
30 under the recent open-skies agreement between the U.S. and European
Union;
-- Alitalia - five round-trips per week to Rome beginning in June;
-- British Airways - seven additional round-trips per week to London,
which began in April 2007;
-- Emirates Airline - seven round-trips per week to Dubai beginning Sept.
1;
-- EVA Air - three additional round-trips per week to Taipei via Osaka
which began March 30;
-- Korean Air - three round-trips per week to Sao Paulo, Brazil,
beginning June 2;
-- United Airlines - seven round-trips per week to Frankfurt, which began
last December;
-- United Airlines - seven round-trips per week to Hong Kong, which began
last October; and
-- Air China - seven additional round-trips per week to Beijing beginning
in Summer 2009.

According to the LAEDC study released last year, one average daily,
round-trip, transoceanic flight of wide-body aircraft from LAX generated $623
million in annual economic output, and sustained 3,120 direct and indirect
jobs in Southern California and $156 million in wages.

In 2006, international overseas flights at LAX, including airport
operations,
visitor spending, and cargo services, generated more than $82 billion in
total annual economic output in Southern California. They sustained 362,700
direct and indirect jobs with more than $19 billion in wages.

CONTACTS:
Office of the Mayor
Darryl Ryan
(213) 978-0741

LAWA/
Nancy Castles
(310) 646-5260

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