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The story
Naming competition
The name of the airline was decided in the same way that Virgin Blue's own name was found, with a public naming competition conducted in June 2007. On 25 June 2007, Virgin Blue released the eight finalists of the naming competition. They were Amelia Blue, Australia Blue, Didgeree Blue, Liberty Blue, Matilda Blue, V Australia Airlines, Virgin Australia and Virgin Pacific. Australia Blue and Virgin Pacific were early favourites to win the competition, despite a problem with the latter, as Singapore Airlines (through its stake in Virgin Atlantic) had control over the use of the 'Virgin' name on international air routes, and had not, in the past, allowed its use. On 25 July 2007, Virgin Blue announced that V Australia would be the name of the new carrier, with the runner up of the competition, Didgeree Blue, to be the name of the airline's first plane.
Creation
In early 2006, Virgin Blue announced its intention to operate up to seven flights a week to the United States through either Los Angeles or San Francisco, saying that the route was needed to make the airline as profitable as possible. The airline was given permission for ten flights a week to the United States by Australian regulators on 24 July 2007. The plans were approved by US regulators on 15 February 2008, due to the signing of an open skies agreement between Australia and the US. V Australia was then allowed unlimited capacity between Australia and the U.S. by the Australian International Air Services Commission.
V Australia later applied to the United States Department of Transportation to operate services to and from Sydney to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, and New York. Permission from the United States Department of Transportation was given after the signing of the open skies agreement.
First aircraft
V Australia placed orders with Boeing for six Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Pending delivery of the six aircraft, V Australia leased its first Boeing 777-300ER from the International Lease Finance Corporation; named Didgeree Blue, it was delivered to V Australia at Boeing's Seattle headquarters on 26 January 2009. On 9 February Didgeree Blue touched down at Sydney Airport after flying from Seattle via Los Angeles where it was launched to the US press by Sir Richard Branson and Australian celebrities Julian McMahon and Holly Valance. In 2010, two of the Boeing 777 orders were converted to options for delivery in 2012.
V Australia commenced passenger services on 27 February 2009. On 17 August 2009, V Australia announced that it would expand on its Brisbane/Sydney to Los Angeles routes. It was announced that the airline would fly from Melbourne to Johannesburg, Los Angeles and Phuket; as well as Brisbane to Phuket. V Australia also announced on 17 August 2009 that it had applied to fly between Australia and Fiji. V Australia also considered routes to China, according to an interview with Sir Richard Branson.
In August 2010 it was announced that due to the unprofitability of some routes, V Australia would cease its 777-300ER services to Johannesburg and Phuket. On 24 February 2011, the aircraft were redeployed on services between Sydney and Abu Dhabi to coincide with the partnership between V Australia and Etihad Airways.
From Wikipedia’s article on V Australia, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3