when did virgin australia (formerly virgin blue) commence flying in australia
November 1999
title: Virgin Australia text: to compete with Qantas on Perth–Melbourne–Sydney services; and the concurrent introduction of business class in January 2012; together with a new livery and renaming of the brand to Virgin Australia. Virgin Australia was launched as Virgin Blue in August 2000, with two Boeing 737-400 aircraft, one of which was leased from then-sister airline Virgin Express. Initially offering seven return flights a day between Brisbane and Sydney, this has since been expanded to cover all major Australian cities and many holiday destinations. The Virgin Blue name was the result of an open competition; it was a play on the predominantly red title: Virgin Australia text: 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. Instead of using its existing brand, Virgin Blue launched a fully owned subsidiary with a separate Air Operator's Certificate, named V Australia as the result of a public naming competition, with a fleet of five specifically branded 777-300ERs. The airline launched flights between Sydney and Los Angeles in 2009, followed by flights from Melbourne and Brisbane since obtaining permission to operate an unlimited number of flights between Australia and title: Virgin Australia text: Virgin Australia Virgin Australia Airlines is Australia's second-largest airline after Qantas and it is the largest airline by fleet size to use the Virgin brand. Based in Bowen Hills, Brisbane, the airline was co-founded by British businessman Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group and former CEO Brett Godfrey. It was established as Virgin Blue in November 1999 with two aircraft operating on a single route, and suddenly found itself catapulted to the position of Australia's second airline after the collapse of Ansett Australia in September 2001. The airline has grown to directly serve 29 cities in Australia from hubs title: Virgin Australia text: the U.S. by the Australian International Air Services Commission. V Australia also applied to the United States Department of Transportation to operate services to San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, and New York, but these plans never materialised. V Australia later launched flights to Nadi, Phuket and Johannesburg (all of which were discontinued prior to the brand being absorbed into Virgin Australia, although Virgin Australia continued to operate to Phuket until 2015, and still operates to Nadi), and Abu Dhabi to consolidate Virgin Blue's codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways. On 7 May 2010, Brett Godfrey officially stepped down as Virgin Blue title: V Australia text: V Australia V Australia was a long-haul international airline owned by Virgin Australia Holdings that commenced operating on 27 February 2009. As part of a rebranding of all of Virgin Australia Holdings' subsidiaries, on 7 December 2011 it was subsumed into Virgin Australia. 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: Australia Blue and Virgin Pacific were early favourites to win the competition, despite a