Virgin Australia scraps premium entry at major airports ahead of summer holidays
Virgin Australia's premium passengers will lose their exclusive terminal entry points in Sydney and Brisbane ahead of the busy summer period.
Virgin Australia passengers with premium entry privileges will have to join all other travellers in the departure halls at Sydney and Brisbane airports over the busy summer holiday period in an overhaul of security screening.
Premium entry is a popular perk of gold and platinum Velocity status and business-class travel, because it allows those customers to avoid the queues in the main terminal and pass through a dedicated security checkpoint providing a fast-track to the lounge.
The changes are being communicated to affected passengers this week with the sweetener of increased “priority screening” in existing security areas to help reduce queuing times.
In the case of Sydney Airport, Virgin’s premium entry will permanently close, with priority screening in the main departure area to operate from 5am-10am and 2pm-7pm Monday to Friday.
At Brisbane Airport, Virgin Australia’s premium entry is expected to reopen in late 2026 with high-tech security scanners installed. In the meantime priority screening will be available all day at the new central security zone on the mezzanine level.
The hours of priority screening for eligible travellers will be extended at Melbourne Airport to mirror those of Sydney, and Virgin will reinstate priority screening at Perth Airport.
A Virgin Australia spokesman said the changes would significantly increase access to priority screening for eligible guests across major domestic airports.
“At Sydney Airport it is anticipated that 95 per cent of passengers will travel from the kerbside to airside in less than 15 minutes as a result of the screening upgrade,” the spokesman said.
Executive Traveller editor-in-chief David Flynn said premium entry was one of the innovations of former Virgin Australia chief executive John Borghetti in his drive to take the airline up-market, and challenge Qantas.
“It was hugely appreciated by corporate travellers and frequent flyers who flew without checked luggage,” Mr Flynn said. However, he said the hi-tech scanners being rolled out at airports combined with the new priority screening lanes would still have most travellers on the fast-track. “It’s just that they won’t go straight from kerb to lounge, which was always a real treat.”
“You could step out of your taxi or Uber at Sydney T2 and be enjoying coffee in the Virgin lounge within five minutes.”
The move comes as Virgin Australia overhauls its business-class menu and buy-onboard options, ahead of the peak travel season. With more than six million people expected to board a flight between December and February, Virgin is adding more “summer-inspired” dishes to its front-of-the-cabin service.
These include breakfast options of mango Bircher muesli and tapioca mango pudding, and lunch or dinner choices of marinated lemongrass chicken, vegetable ragout cottage pie and peri peri marinated chicken salad.
New buy onboard options include Tim Tams, Byron Bay cookies, Bundaberg sparkling drinks and batched strawberry gin sour cocktails.
Virgin Australia general manager of product and customer strategy Ali Dunn said the time was right to introduce new menus that delivered more choice.
“Whether it’s enjoying a grazing box, sipping a premium cocktail, or having a classic eggs benedict in business class, the new menus are elevated and unmistakably Virgin Australia,” said Ms Dunn.
“We are committed to making travel more wonderful – from pets in cabin flights to baggage tracking, our new menus are a testament to that relentless focus.”
The airline axed “free food” in economy, and dumped consultant chef Luke Mangan after being sold to US private equity firm Bain Capital, moving to a buy on-board model to offer customers more choice.
In the past year, cheese and crackers have been the most purchased item, among more than 5.4 million food and beverage selections sold onboard.
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Originally published as Virgin Australia scraps premium entry at major airports ahead of summer holidays
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