Melbourne Airport: Virgin’s inaugural Melbourne to Hong Kong service takes-off

Branson revealed himself inside Melbourne Airport's international terminal after parading around the precinct, surprising travellers and onlookers.

The Virgin founder was in Melbourne to celebrate Virgin's inaugural flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong along with Federal Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Steven Ciobo, State Minister for Tourism and Major Events John Eren, Virgin CEO and Managing Director, John Borghetti and Regional Director, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Andrew Clark.

The airline will operate five flights per week on a dual aisle Airbus A330-200 aircraft with capacity to operate 1,375 departing seats each week.

Melbourne Airport Chief of Aviation Simon Gandy said the Melbourne-Hong Kong route was an important connection for tourism, business travel and cargo.

"We are delighted Virgin have chosen Melbourne to expand their international services creating more opportunities for Victorians to travel for business, leisure, education and renewing family ties," Mr Gandy said.

"Hong Kong is one of our top ten international outbound destinations with around 115,000 people travelling between Melbourne and Hong Kong each year."

"With Virgin's award winning business class offering, our travellers can look forward to the latest in in-flight services on their A330-200 offering with 20 Business seats and 255 Economy seats in a 2-4-2 configuration."

"This international service will make a significant impact on our local economy as each daily international service injects between 100 and 150 million dollars a year into Victoria. With five flights a week that's almost two million dollars flowing into the Victorian economy each week from this new service."