Virgin Australia will soon be flying with business class to the Gold Coast, and new luxury lounge is set to follow.

At a media conference at the Gold Coast Airport today, Virgin Australia Chief Executive and Managing Director John Borghetti announced the introduction of Business Class services to the Gold Coast and a snazzy airport lounge with Queensland Minister for Tourism Manufacturing and Small Business, State Member for Whitsunday Jan Jarratt.

Mr. Borghetti stated that Virgin Australia would be the only airline to offer domestic Business Class services to the Gold Coast and the first for more than seven years.

“The Gold Coast is an important city in the Virgin Australia network. We carry almost one million corporate and leisure Guests each year.

“With the introduction of Business Class services by the last quarter of 2011 and the opening of our new lounge in early 2012, Virgin Australia is proudly responding to the tourism and the business sectors of the Gold Coast and South‐east Queensland region,” he said.

Virgin Australia is progressively rolling out the Business Class product across the fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft. Complete with luxury leather seating, contemporary interior design, high quality in‐flight products and a gourmet menu designed by Luke Mangan, the aircraft demonstrate a new in‐flight experience aboard Virgin Australia.

The new Boeing 737‐800 Business and Economy Class interiors will be rolled out across the majority of Virgin Australia’s current domestic fleet by the end of the year. Business Class is already available for sale on the Airbus A330‐200 and will be available for sale on the Boeing 737‐800 in the last quarter of 2011.

Mr. Borghetti said the Gold Coast lounge formed part of the airline’s program of new and updated lounges in Queensland that included Mackay to open by the end of the year and the new Brisbane lounge that opened late last month.