After years of waiting, Virgin Australia today announced to the travelling public that complimentary food will be served on all flights across the Australian domestic network.

Today’s announcement compliments Virgin’s move to a full service airline with baggage and in flight entertainment already included in the ticket price. Virgin Australia Chief Customer Officer, Mark Hassell, says “The roll out of free food and checked baggage to complement our wireless in-flight entertainment, is an important part of our ability to deliver a consistent, premium service across our network,”

The food and beverage service has been tailored to the time of day and the duration of the journey however the exact details on this are still to come as passengers receive the new service.



Whilst customers will be provided with complimentary tea, coffee, juice and water on all flights and wine, beer and soft drinks between 5 and 7pm Monday to Friday on east coast flights (there is no set times on transcontinental flights) outside of this, if you want something else to drink it will need to be purchased. In addition to this, the buy on board snack menu that offers other food choices and ‘snacks’ will also still be available.

The transition phase from Virgin Blue - low cost carrier, to Virgin Australia- full service carrier, has been confusing for the travelling public with a lack of continuity across the network between flights and even states.  Today’s announcement takes the guess work out of travelling with Virgin Australia and cements it as a real competitor for Qantas.

So how do Qantas and Virgin Australia compare in Economy Class for Domestic travel?

Qantas do still have a slight upper hand here having blankets and pillows available on all flights which Virgin don’t do and less time restrictions on when they serve alcohol on east coast flights. Virgin, however, tend to offer a slightly more competitive fare.

No matter how important these small differences are and whom you choose to fly, when you travel within Australia, you are receiving the best domestic in-flight offering in the world.

AirlineRatings.com this year awarded Qantas and Virgin Australia the world’s Best Domestic Airline and Best New World Carrier respectively. This reinforces that we, the Australian travelling public, are extremely fortunate to have the choices and on-board offerings we do, especially in economy class.

          See all our airline award winners for 2015

In America, self titled Full Service airlines, American Airlines, Delta and United offer virtually nothing in the way of free food or alcoholic beverages on any of their domestic flights in economy, even the lengthy east-west coast flights are "buy on board". The same rules apply for many international flights operated by these carriers.

Too often we at AirlineRatings receive complaints from Australians travelling within America who can’t believe they had to buy a drink and food on-board since they are technically travelling on a full service airline. On the contrary, Americans visiting Australia, experiencing our premium domestic service only feel more disappointed when they have to travel back home again.

We are spoilt here in Australia and today’s announcement from Virgin Australia to offer complimentary meals and snacks on all its flights is not only a great thing for those of us on-board but a great and important step forward in the airlines transition to be a premium full service carrier.