Virgin heavy maintenance crew discovered a fault on Wednesday.

There will be no more direct flights from Melbourne to LA for Virgin Australia passengers. Photo: Glenn Hunt



Virgin Australia will increase flights from Brisbane to Los Angeles to a daily service and abandon its Melbourne-Los Angeles flights as rival United Airlines enters the latter route in October.


Virgin had provided a three-weekly service between Melbourne and Los Angeles and a four-weekly service between Brisbane and Los Angeles on a Boeing 777-300ER, but now the Brisbane route will go daily from October 26.


United Airlines begins its direct, six-weekly Melbourne-Los Angeles flights on a new 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft on October 28, ending its previous tag flight from Melbourne to Sydney that allowed Melbourne customers to then catch flights from Sydney to Los Angeles and San Francisco.


Virgin said had made the decision to change its US flights after consulting with its trans-Pacific alliance partner Delta Air Lines.