Virgin Australia has launched a half-price flash sale following its phone lines being swamped after the announcement of the Australian government-subsidized 800,000 seat sale from April 1, to support the airline industry. But rather than limited routes, Virgin Australia has half-priced seats for sale on all its routes. The seats go on sale between 5pm and 7pm AEDT this afternoon (March 12) for travel in the next two weeks and are subject to sale. Fare examples are;

• Sydney-Byron Bay/Byron Bay-Sydney from $55
• Sydney-Gold Coast/Gold Coast-Sydney from $55
• Melbourne-Launceston/Launceston-Melbourne from $64
• Brisbane-Whitsunday Coast/Whitsunday Coast-Brisbane from $78
• Melbourne-Gold Coast/Gold Coast-Melbourne from $88
• Perth to Broome $146
• Melbourne to Perth $165

The fares include baggage, seat selection, and Velocity Frequent Flyer points, and status credits. A Virgin Australia Group spokesperson said "we’ve been inundated with guests wanting to book the Federal Government’s half-price fares, so we’re giving our customers a taste of what’s to come, with half-price, one-way economy fares on sale from 5-7pm today or until sold out. READ: Qatar Airways destinations soar "It’s important that we continue to play our part to get Australians traveling so that we can bring more of our people back to work and reboot the tourism economy and our half-price airfare sale is a testament of that. "There has literally never been a better time to fly and guests will be able to book fares today to popular Australian destinations such as Byron Bay and the Gold Coast for no more than a taxi fare."