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New Route: Virgin Australia Direct from Cairns to Tokyo from $699 Return @ Virgin Australia

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New Route: Virgin Australia Direct from Cairns to Tokyo from $699 Return @ Virgin AustraliaAffiliate
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beatthatflight on 14/12/2022 - 09:15 newsroom.virginaustralia.com (1351 clicks)
Last edited 14/12/2022 - 09:16
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Virgin Australia, together with the Queensland Government and Cairns Airport, has announced a new year-round, daily Cairns-Tokyo (Haneda) service, adding over 2,000 seats per week from 28 June 2023.*
To celebrate, Virgin Australia has dropped a massive ‘Hello Tokyo’ sale with tickets on sale from $699 return, until midnight next Tuesday 20 December 2022 or until sold out.
Flying direct to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, the route will add over 30,000 additional inbound visitors into Cairns every year, delivering a major boost for the local tourism industry.
Virgin Australia plans to operate the route using new Boeing 737-8 aircraft. The 737-8 aircraft type will reduce emissions by up to 15 percent per flight.**
Virgin Australia has also announced it will strengthen its partnership with All Nippon Airways (ANA), with expanded codeshare services and reciprocal loyalty benefits to be implemented throughout 2023.

Hello Tokyo return Economy fares on sale until midnight 20 December 2022:

Cairns – Tokyo from $699 (Lite fare)
Cairns – Tokyo from $819 (Choice fare)
Brisbane – Cairns – Tokyo from $749 (Lite fare)
Sydney – Cairns – Tokyo from $749 (Lite fare)
Melbourne – Cairns – Tokyo from $749 (Lite fare)
Brisbane – Cairns – Tokyo from $869 (Choice fare)
Sydney – Cairns – Tokyo from $869 (Choice fare)
Melbourne – Cairns – Tokyo from $869 (Choice fare)
Travel Airfare Asia Haneda Airport Japan Tokyo

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closed Comments

  • MSG on 14/12/2022 - 09:22
    +2

    737-8 = 737 MAX 8

    • jbird84 on 14/12/2022 - 09:29
      +4

      FYI the problematic systems on the MAX have been fixed in that the MCAS can now be easily overridden by pilots, which wasn't the case before. They're perfectly fine aircraft now

      • hippyhippy on 14/12/2022 - 09:42
        +11

        They also said it they were perfectly fine before all the disasters…

        • jbird84 on 14/12/2022 - 09:47
          +3

          I'm the last person to trust a billion dollar company, but empirically speaking, the planes have not crashed since the fix

          • odysseus on 14/12/2022 - 12:06
            +3

            @jbird84: It took some time for the first crashes after first certified and flying. They were first certified in Mar 2017, then first crash in Oct 2018, following by another in Mar 2019.

            They were re-approved by the US in Nov 2020, and other authorities later. While I personally doubt after the crashes and scrutiny they would let it fail again, the time without incident so far isn't proof itself of safety.

            • effraye on 14/12/2022 - 14:53
              +1

              @odysseus: Theoretically having fixed the issue these planes are now safer than planes with no issues, or issues that aren't known yet.

    • beatthatflight on 14/12/2022 - 09:31

      Yes. To clarify for others, 737-800 is not 737 max 8. Virgin is buying a bunch of the max-8s, but they're only scheduled for Q3 2023, so I presume the 737-8 in their press release is meant to be a MAX 8. Especially when they say "** 15 per cent less than 737-800 aircraft." at the bottom for fuel usage.

    • kodoq on 14/12/2022 - 09:32
      +1

      No thanks. I'm not taking that aircraft type.

  • thrillho on 14/12/2022 - 09:30
    +8

    Nearly 8 hours in a 737 is not a fun time.

    • adrianhughes1998 on 14/12/2022 - 09:32

      Ok if your business class but like any other plane will stay in economy

      • Repstar on 14/12/2022 - 09:33
        +4

        Even business in a 737 for 8 hours is too much.

        • adrianhughes1998 on 14/12/2022 - 11:24

          Did 6.5hr on Fiji Airways Max 8 Business Class and no issues. Quite comfortable even for me at 198cm.on height.

          The bigger issue is better redemption of points and reward seats than a Max 8 biz class seat is possible on other routes on other airlines, and that should be the aim of course.

    • beatthatflight on 14/12/2022 - 09:33
      +3

      But it's a max-8, so you'll have the excitement of all the messages from friends reminding you about their previous flight issues ;)

    • Flying Ace on 14/12/2022 - 10:43
      +2

      Slot-squatting at its finest!

    • Homerlovesbeer on 14/12/2022 - 13:51
      +1

      Yep 8 hours in a 737 seems like a type of hell nobody should have to suffer.

    • Pcoder on 14/12/2022 - 21:03

      Yeah, at least with the Airbus a320, the fuselage is 3.7m in the cabin allowing for 18 inch wide seats, whereas the 737 is a Max width of 3.53m only allowing for 17 inch wide seats. Knowing Virgin, this won't be a special aircraft with a row of economy removed and extra seat room distributed, but the standard 31 inch pitch which will make this an awful flight.

      The only positive is that there will be increased competition on the Japan-Australia routes as its quite dominated by the oneworld airlines.

  • sonicentropy on 14/12/2022 - 09:34

    Great to have another option to Tokyo its worth the trainride to brisvegas just to fly into Haneda. Still prefer the jetstar dreamliner to the Max.(both are not great)

  • dirtyhen on 14/12/2022 - 09:36

    any advice on what to do with a 4 year old during this 15+ hours flight?

    • sonicentropy on 14/12/2022 - 09:38
      +7

      $5 kmart dog bed to curl up in and a ipad with 12 hours of synced content virgin entertainment system is sparce for kid friendly content. Lots of snacks.

    • hippyhippy on 14/12/2022 - 09:44

      Usually they sleep.. so give them a decent meal before..

    • battler on 14/12/2022 - 09:46
      +6

      phenergan

    • justaddwater on 14/12/2022 - 10:49
      +3

      Vodka or whiskey

  • jaygee on 14/12/2022 - 10:06
    +1

    Jesus, 2 bathrooms for economy passengers on a nearly 8 hour flight. No thanks.

    • blueturkey45 on 14/12/2022 - 10:58
      +2

      Agreed. 8 hours on a narrow-body aircraft would be an unpleasant experience. I would much rather fly Singapore Airlines with stopover in Changi.

      • jaygee on 14/12/2022 - 11:18

        Or even fly to Sydney for a direct flight. Maybe Brisbane has a direct?

  • Flying Ace on 14/12/2022 - 10:43
    +1

    It's interesting seeing this conversation from an avgeek's point of view. In avgeek circles the MAX 8 is totally safe now after all their issues, and general consensus is that the general public don't care either - but it's clear from some of the comments here that the issues with the MAX are still in peoples' minds!

    • adrianhughes1998 on 14/12/2022 - 11:26

      It is but millions of passengers have flown it since they've fixed it, myself included, without issue. I think the folks worried are in the minority.

    • wackedupwacko on 14/12/2022 - 13:08
      +5

      Its not the Max safety for me. Its the fact it's an 8 hour flight in a 737 Max narrowbody.

      There's very little room to get up and about for one. The other thing is they're most likely competing with Jetstar here and Jetstar flies their 788 which is a much more comfortable plane for longer haul travel.

  • Boom87 on 14/12/2022 - 11:44
    +3

    Still waiting on a direct flight from Perth :(

    • Homerlovesbeer on 14/12/2022 - 13:54

      You Perth people want it all lol. Direct flights to London, Rome, soon to be Paris, and now you want Japan :D

      • carlordau on 15/12/2022 - 01:31

        It's been teased to us since July-ish when ANA were taking bookings for October this year, only to postpone it indefinitely. ANA had been flying direct Perth to Japan prior to the pandemic.

        The flights under this offer are pretty affordable compared with other airlines (e.g. Scoot, SG, and QANTAS), but it is three legs and a day of flying to get to Tokyo from Perth.

  • wackedupwacko on 14/12/2022 - 13:05
    +1

    Prices are decent in this sale but plane wise I'd honestly take Jetstar from Cairns. I'd also imagine after this sale period they'll be relatively price competitive with Jetstar.

    But yeh at least it's more flights to and from Japan. Just wish they stuck with their a333 bne to hnd route.

    • countmein on 14/12/2022 - 13:31

      Is the seat configuration or space that makes jestar better?

      • Flying Ace on 14/12/2022 - 13:33

        Larger aircraft.

      • kerfuffle on 14/12/2022 - 13:34

        They use a Dreamliner 787 (or they did back in 2016)

      • wackedupwacko on 14/12/2022 - 14:22

        Space more than anything else. Seating config would 3-3 vs 3-3-3 so it in theory it wouldn't be too different, but just having that extra aisle space, extra toilets more room to stretch in an 8 hour flight is very much a big difference.

        737 Max8 is a narrow body (newer version of the common planes between syd and Mel for example). Where as jetstar flies the b787-8 (at least for now) between the Cairns and narita.

    • Flying Ace on 14/12/2022 - 13:33

      Qantas are operating BNE-HND 3 times a week.

    • AircraftFreight on 14/12/2022 - 13:39
      +2

      I'd be getting cautious about booking far into next year in regard to the use of B788s out of Cairns. Just like MEL-DPS there is a chance that it will be swapped into a A321Ns, the COO, current and former CEO stated that it's one of the routes that JQ is looking at replacing from 788s to A321Ns. Looking at the order books, JQ is expected to obtain another 11 A321Ns by this time next year.

      • wackedupwacko on 14/12/2022 - 14:20

        That is true, although if you want to be safe about it, i guess you could fly from OOL with JQ instead. I'm pretty sure that's out of the range of a321n at commercially viable capacity.

  • countmein on 14/12/2022 - 13:30

    Good price

  • life is suffering on 14/12/2022 - 13:49
    +1

    Landlords in Cairns can afford

    Edit : chill landlords Lol

  • xiaozaocha on 14/12/2022 - 15:10

    I shall pass the narrow body aircraft for a long haul.

    When will VA bring the bigger plane back?

  • littlesoldier on 14/12/2022 - 15:11
    +3

    I remember Virgin doesn't allow economy class passengers to use the toilets located in the business cabin?
    If so, meaning all econ passengers are shared the only 2 toilets for a 7 hours flight?

  • xyron on 14/12/2022 - 17:30

    The convenience of landing in Haneda is offset by the inconvenience of having to fly out of Cairns…

    • Daabido on 14/12/2022 - 22:43

      I like the ride on the Limousine Bus from Narita. I've never flown into Haneda.

    • Csadeev on 15/12/2022 - 11:45

      Riding the train for an extra 20 mins in Tokyo vs having a 3 hours layover in Cairns is a different story unfortunately. Jetstar with a wide body aircraft (787) from Gold Coast seems a lot more lucrative for those living in SEQ.

      • pumpkinpieblah on 15/12/2022 - 12:31

        I've not been to Tokyo but have heard flying into Haneda airport and using the trains from there is more complicated than the same from Narita?

        • Pcoder on 15/12/2022 - 13:05
          +3

          You probably have more options out of Narita, with Keisei skyline, Keisei Main lines which some services through run into the TOEI Asakusa subway line, the the JR Narita express which connects well with Ueno, Tokyo, Shinagawa, Shinjuku, Yokohama, Omiya and a few other destinations.

          Out of Haneda you have the Keikyu lines which connect with the same TOEI Asakusa subway line, but also fan out to other destinations like Yokohama. Then you have the Monorail which has so so connections. Things will improve with JRs Haneda sky access lines but that is years away.

          Haneda is closer to the city so that does make certain things easier, but the main advantage to Haneda is its domestic airline connections which are way better than the small amount offered from Narita. So if you're only travelling to Tokyo, There isn't as much disadvantage to Narita, but if your going to travel domestically then it's more of a pain out of Narita.

          • pumpkinpieblah on 15/12/2022 - 14:14

            @Pcoder: Thanks for such a detailed response, the info is really helpful in reducing my anxiety when it comes to choosing between the two airports!

  • derrko on 15/12/2022 - 17:21

    Does Virgin include food?

    • kerfuffle on 16/12/2022 - 15:59

      For Economy, no. Buy on board

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