Some Photos from Moranbah Airport as Inaugural Virgin Australia Scheduled Service from Brisbane Touches Down

After an early start for the family on Tuesday 2 April, we drove to Moranbah - through some pelting rain mind you - and arrived just in time to see Virgin Australia (Skywest Airlines) ATR 72-500 VH-FVM touch down at Moranbah Airport from Brisbane as VOZ1661.

This marked the start of regular scheduled passenger services into Moranbah by Virgin, and allows local residents and workers to now have a choice between Virgin and QantasLink for their travel to and from the mining town.

From what I could see, the inbound load from Brisbane was quite good.  I reckon most, if not all, of the 68 leather seats inside the ATR were occupied.

VH-FVM later departed back to Brisbane as VOZ1662.

Virgin now operates into Moranbah twice on weekdays - the evening VOZ1667/1668 service from and back to Brisbane on Tuesday 2 April was operated by ATR 72-600 VH-FVN.

Also spotted by me at Moranbah early on Tuesday 2 April was QantasLink Dash-8-Q400 VH-QOX which had earlier arrived from Brisbane as QLK2452.  It is also seen departing back to Brisbane as QLK2453 as the last of the Virgin ATR passengers were disembarking.

QantasLink Dash-8-Q400 Next Gen VH-LQK was also spotted as it overflew the airport in preparation for landing in the rather inclement weather.

Despite the cloud and rain, it was a great morning!  Best of luck to Virgin on this new and exciting venture!