Virgin Australia Named Australia’s Most Trusted Travel Brand for Fourth Year

Essentials remembers the wonderfully irreverent airline of the mid-2000s particularly well. At the Virgin Blue Hangar Ball in 2005, we rubbed shoulders with then CEO Brett Godfrey and somehow found ourselves helping Sir Richard Branson with photography duties as a line of adoring female fans queued for their moment with the famously flamboyant airline founder.

Back then, the sense of humour continued once you were aboard. Cabin announcements could occasionally wander into territory that would make today’s corporate communications department wince — including the odd James Bond and Pussy Galore-inspired joke delivered over the PA.

It was cheeky, distinctly Virgin and very much of its time.

Two decades later, Virgin Australia is a considerably more mature airline. The aircraft, network and passenger experience have evolved, and some of that early Virgin Blue mischief has inevitably disappeared along the way. Travelling with Virgin Australia can still feel refreshingly informal and fun, but there’s no mistaking it: the once-upstart Australian airline has well and truly grown up.

Virgin Australia has certainly come a long way since its Virgin Blue days.

The airline has once again been named Australia’s Most Trusted Travel & Tourism Brand in the 2026 Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards, taking the title for an impressive fourth consecutive year.

The annual awards draw on Roy Morgan research with thousands of Australian consumers, measuring both trust and distrust across major industries to determine a Net Trust Score. According to Roy Morgan, Australians singled out Virgin Australia for its quality of service, value for money, consistency and reliability, along with its staff, safety record and handling of passengers when flights are delayed.

It’s quite an evolution for an airline that built much of its early reputation on being the cheeky Australian aviation upstart. Perhaps that’s precisely what four consecutive years as Australia’s most trusted travel and tourism brand represents: the personality survived, while the airline around it matured. Big ups for Branson and the Aussie team; perhaps it’s time for a new celebration!