Sir Richard Branson launched Virgin’s first round-the-world airfare today having completed his global network with a transpacific service.

V Australia will launch on Friday connecting Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with Los Angeles, allowing passengers to fly around the world without leaving the Virgin family.

Virgin will now sell a Global East and Global West ticket at a starting price of £1,239.

The ticket will take passengers from London to Hong Kong and Sydney on Virgin Atlantic, Sydney to Los Angeles on V Australia and Los Angeles back to London on Virgin Atlantic – or the other way.

Virgin will also offer a Global South ticket later this year when V Australia starts services from Sydney to Johannesburg.

Virgin has priced its Global East and West tickets below the standard fares offered by British Airway’s oneworld alliance and Lufthansa’s Star alliance to grab a share of the round-the-world market.

Sir Richard said: “The combination of Virgin Atlantic and V Australia offers travellers huge flexibility in their global planning and some of the best value round the world fares available. The destinations are also some of the most exciting in the world.”

The launch of V Australia was only made possible after the US and Australian governments removed restrictions on who could operate between the two countries last year. Qantas and United have had the route to themselves for many years.

Sir Richard said: “As long as we are twice as good as Qantas and a thousand times as good as United, which should not be difficult, we will succeed.”

V Australia had been due to launch on December 15 but this was delayed because of a strike at Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer. V Australia’s aircraft were being built when the strike hit, forcing the airline to cancel tickets.

Sir Richard said: “We had to mess so many customers about because Boeing could not get their act together. We made our feelings very clear to them.” (Via The Times)