Virgin Lands at Flight Centre HQ

Virgin Australia has circled in on a new Brisbane office, moving to Flight Centre’s corporate headquarters at the Southpoint building on 275 Grey Street, South Bank.

Virgin decided to make the move from Bowen Hills despite having a lease with Charter Hall—at its Long WALE REIT's 56 Edmonstone Road buildings—set to expire in May 2026.

The flight operator has had a lot of offers for possible rental locations and has shuffled staff around since the company went into voluntary administration during the peak of the first Covid-19 wave in April.

“The Virgin Australia group had been looking to relocate its Brisbane Head Office to a more fit-for-purpose facility for some time,” a Virgin Australia spokesperson said.

“The group will now be ending their current lease in Bowen Hills in September and relocating all Brisbane-based corporate team members to the Southpoint building at Southbank, where they’ll occupy five floors of the building.”

This follows Virgin’s departure from AMP Capital’s 7 Macquarie Street, Sydney building in May.

The lease was broken so the company could join fellow Virgin Australia Holdings subsidiary Velocity Frequent Flyer at an office in The Rocks near Sydney’s CBD.

“The Virgin Australia Group had been looking into a solution to combine its two Sydney offices,” a Virgin Australia spokesperson said.

“All Sydney corporate team members will now be located at the Grosvenor Place building.”

Bidding war for Virgin Australia

Queensland and New South Wales have been fighting over Virgin Australia headquarters and staff.

Queensland minister for state development Cameron Dick blasted New South Wales treasurer Dominic Perrottet for trying to relocate the Virgin headquarters to Sydney.

“At a time of crisis, we should not get into a bidding war, but if it comes down to it, other states and need to know that our government will stop at nothing to win it,” Dick said.

NSW was pushing for Virgin to be headquartered at the new Western Sydney Aerotropolis at Badgerys Creek.

However at the end of June it was announced Virgin would stay in Queensland with Bain Capital selected by administrator Deloitte as the preferred bidder for the airline, pending a final agreement with creditors in August.