Five years after pausing its packaged travel offering amid the global travel collapse triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian carrier Virgin Australia has announced its return to the bundled holiday booking market, launching a revamped service to meet booming post-pandemic consumer demand for seamless travel planning.
Dubbed Virgin Australia Holidays, the new offering is built in partnership with global travel marketplace Hopper, and lets customers book both flights and accommodation in a single transaction, with a curated selection of domestic and international travel options to choose from. This relaunch revives a brand that first launched back in 2003, before being pulled from the market in 2020 when border closures and public health restrictions sent global travel demand plummeting.
The move comes as Australia’s travel sector experiences unprecedented post-pandemic growth, with Australians taking holidays at record rates and transforming expectations around how trips should be booked and organized. New joint research from Virgin Australia and research firm YouGov underscores this shifting consumer landscape: half of all surveyed Australians reported a clear preference for simpler, more time-efficient trip planning tools, while three-quarters of respondents said they would be more likely to book a travel package through their preferred airline if the offering included competitive pricing.
Libby Minogue, chief marketing officer at Virgin Australia, framed the relaunch as a strategic expansion of the airline’s core offering beyond standalone air travel. “Virgin Australia Holidays marks an important step in expanding our offering beyond flights and into a more complete travel experience,” Minogue said. “With more Australians seeking value and convenience, we’re bringing together flights, accommodation and Velocity benefits in one seamless booking experience, delivering greater value at a time when cost of living remains front of mind.”
To kick off the new service, Virgin Australia is offering limited-time introductory promotional packages for travel between July 15, 2026, and March 16, 2027, with deals available across popular destinations including Bali and Cairns. The promotional window closes at 11:59 pm AEST on May 27. Introductory pricing starts at $745 per person for a Bali package, which includes return economy flights from Gold Coast to Denpasar and four nights of accommodation for two travelers. For Cairns, packages start at $820 per person, including return flights from Brisbane and four nights of accommodation.
The service also includes additional perks for Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer members: customers with eligible package bookings can earn and redeem Velocity points, as well as accumulate Status Credits for their memberships.
Industry data confirms that the relaunch aligns with broader travel trends across Australia. Outbound travel hit 11.6 million trips in 2024, with continued growth recorded through the first months of 2025. While forecasters expect this rapid post-pandemic growth to gradually stabilize through the second half of the 2020s as demand normalizes, projections show outbound travel will hit 14.9 million annual trips by 2030. Ongoing strong demand for short-haul leisure destinations including Japan, China, Vietnam and Thailand is expected to shape future travel patterns across the country. Major Australian airports are already reporting record-breaking activity, with Sydney Airport noting its strongest ever first quarter for international travel in 2026.