Virgin Australia steps up product offerings on New Zealand routes

Virgin Australia is taking steps to ramp up its product offering on Australia-New Zealand routes, in preparation for increased competition when its partnership with Air NZ ends. The airline has announced it will start including meals and checked baggage in its base fares in the Australia-New Zealand market, and will introduce on-board Wi-Fi on these flights. It will also start codesharing on a SIA service between the two countries. These changes will take effect from Oct 28. Virgin has had a joint venture partnership with Air NZ on these routes since 2010. However, the pair are not renewing their arrangement when it expires at the end of October. This has prompted the airlines to position themselves to compete separately, including launching or retiming flights. <br/>