Name The Airline Competition
A big thank you to all those who shared their creativity and nominated name suggestions for Virgin Blue's new International Airline or aircraft set to launch flights between Australia and the United States of America late 2008.
The competiton has now closed and we had all sorts of fun and fabulous suggestions (Pineapple Airlines... "So you can give the rough end of the pineapple to the competiton" "Wedgie Airlines" and "Lickety Split Airlines" just to name a few of our favourite cheeky ones).
After careful evaluation and consideration, we are excited to announce a short list has been selected that takes in to account both the suggested name as well as the reason behind it and they include:
Matilda Blue:
Michael Goldblatt: "Retains connection with the Virgin brand name as well as a name associated with a great Australian icon - you can come a Waltzing Matilda Blue".
V Australia Airlines:
Teresa Manuel: "Nice and simple. Easily recognised, V stands for the Virgin Brand. V Australia is easy to say and would be recognised by Americans."
Australia Blue:
Julie Halliday: "True Blue Australian, Consumers knowing Virgin as True Blue airline in service, price and very competitive, Great for promotion for Australian tourism."
Virgin Pacific:
Adam Griffith: "Because Australia and the US share this sea and the flight plan will cross the Pacific Ocean."
Amelia Blue:
Julian Libbis: "Combining AMErica and australLIA. Also refers to famous American aviator Amelia Earhart - a Latin name meaning ambitious, earnest and striving."
Didgeree Blue:
Irene Wilson: "Very Aussie, indigenous, ties in with the "Blue" stable."
Liberty Blue:
Anne Barrack: "As frequent travellers with Virgin Blue, we appreciate the liberty of travelling whenever we like with a happy and conscientious airline and staff."
Virgin Australia:
Brian Sinclair: "This name represents both Virgin and Australia. Virgin, which people see as providing great value, Australia stating the airline's country of origin."
The overall winner will be announced at an event in Sydney on 26 July 2007, and details will also be available on the Virgin Blue website on 27 July 2007.
If you havent heard,
Virgin blue plans on tackling Qantas and US carriers head on, with routes to the USA West coast with their newly ordered 777 aircraft. They have also expressed interest into Getting into Asian Destinations in the far future.
My personal favourite was "Australia Blue".
guess what was chosen??
V Australia airlines 
.. talk about the worst choice (IMO), at least pick a FULL word.. argh! i obviously don't like the name chosen..
This new Aussie airline has been in planning for a few years already (if ya dont know), and it will be fairly similar to Branson's original "Virgin Atlantic Airways" with bar's, Lounges etc.
An alternative that most aussie's will like when compared to Qantas or Jetstar.
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If you want to know why Virgin Blue's new International airline couldnt use the word "virgin" .. well, this will be long..
Virgin Blue has a Written agreement with Virgin Atlantic to use the 'Virgin' Callsign WITHIN australia, outside of Australia the 'virgin' callsign cannot be used. Thus we got Pacific Blue and Polynesia Blue with the callsign of "Blue Bird".
And The use of the word 'virgin' in their new International Airlines name Will be a big problem if the Virgin Group disagree's with it, and im guessing they will
(Pacific Blue, Polynesia Blue all have been rejected to use the word "virgin") - Thats why i think Australia Blue would be the Best choice.. but, they chose V australia :x
Virgin Blue Holdings Limited, Is the company that runs all the Virgin Blue Brand
(Virgin Blue, Pacific Blue, Polynesia Blue and now this new Intl version) It's majority owned by Toll Holdings, which is the largest Transport company in Australia, The only other company that has a huge stake in VOZ would be the Virgin Group. Which don't own the majority. thus, we have naming issues since they don't own the brand anymore..
And this naming issue also goes down to Singapore Airlines, who owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic as well, in the past, they where the guys that didn't let Pacific Blue use the word "virgin".
Thats a lot of red tape over a name, but that's how thing's roll.. SIA reason for making sure the word "virgin" isn't used, is basically, They don't want competition.. this new airline is a similar mirror image of Virgin Atlantic, SIA would hate competing with a similar carrier near their turf.. and i would guess, they dont want people to think of this new airline as a Virgin Atlantic-aussie version..
i hope that answer's any questions to why the name sounds like it was chosen with a game of scissors paper rock..
But really, V Australia airlines :? ??
