This Privacy Statement is intended to give you an overview of the personal information Virgin Australia may collect from you in relation to your flight, holiday or experience booking, why we are collecting it and how we may handle this information.

For an explanation about how Virgin Australia handles personal information more broadly, please read our Privacy Policy, available on our website.

Who is collecting your personal information?

Your personal information is being collected by Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd (ABN 36 090 670 965).

Collection of your personal information

We collect your personal information when you or a third party acting on your behalf:

  • provide your details to us in connection with your flight, holiday or experience booking;
  • make, update or check-in for your flight, holiday or experience booking;
  • request Special Assistance, medical clearance, or other arrangements in relation to your booking or on-board experience; and
  • provide information in connection with a medical clearance request, safety investigation, complaint or claim. 

We may also collect your personal information from our third party service providers who help us deliver our booking sites to you, and process and make arrangements for your flight, holiday or experience booking. For example, Rocket Travel, Inc. powers the Virgin Australia car hire and hotel booking platforms.

If a business you work for is participating in the Virgin Australia Business Flyer program or you travel on a booking that is linked to a Virgin Australia Business Flyer account, the Privacy Statement for Virgin Australia Business Flyer and Loyalty includes more detailed information about the collection and handling of personal information by Virgin Australia and Velocity as part of Virgin Australia Business Flyer and the Velocity Business Program.

See our Privacy Policy for the types of personal information we collect.

Collection of health and other sensitive information

We may collect information about you which is considered sensitive under applicable privacy and data protection laws. This information may include:

  • information in relation to your health if relevant to your travel with us, for example if you make a Special Assistance request or a meal request indicative of a medical condition or food intolerance, we are required to determine your fitness to fly, or where you are involved in a safety investigation, accident, complaint or claim;
  • religious beliefs where you make a meal request indicative of a particular religion (e.g., halal or kosher); and
  • information required for public health and safety purposes, for example to confirm you meet any COVID-19 requirements which apply to your travel.

Generally, we will ask for your consent to handle your health or other sensitive information or, in certain circumstances, you will consent to our collection by providing or agreeing that someone else can provide your health or other sensitive information to us.  We may also handle your health or other sensitive information on other legal grounds, including to comply with our legal obligations, to protect your interests (where you are not capable of giving your consent), where it is in the public interest and in relation to legal claims.

Authority for collection of personal information

We are required under the Customs Act 1901, Migration Act 1958, Civil Aviation Act 1988 and the Civil Aviation Regulations 1988 to collect your contact details, passport details (where you are travelling to or from Australia) and your travel itinerary.

Why do we collect your personal information?

We collect your personal information for a variety of purposes and on different legal grounds. Most of the time, we collect your personal information so that we can provide you with the services and  products that you have requested and to enter into and perform our contract with you. This may include to:

  • process and make arrangements for your flight, holiday or experience booking, managing disruptions or cancellations related to your booking and any additional products or services requested by you;
  • operate our loyalty programs, and arrange frequent flyer program recognition and benefits in relation to your booking where, you are a frequent flyer member, or your booking is linked to a Virgin Australia Business Flyer account;
  • verify your identity;
  • communicate with you before and after your flight, holiday or experience, including to provide flight updates; and
  • determine issues of passenger safety, security and other requirements, including special assistance requirements and medical fitness to fly.

Some information is collected and handled for purposes that you've consented to. This may include:

  • identifying and arranging benefits for you or a business you work for, with our airline and non-airline partners, including frequent flyer program recognition and benefits, complimentary membership and discounts, where you or a business you work for have asked us to do this;
  • contacting you by text message, email or other digital service (such as through our applications that you install on your device such as mobile or iPad) or phone with marketing material that may interest you pre and post booking;
  • establishing your requirements and make any Special Assistance or other arrangements for you when you are travelling with us or one of our holiday or experience providers; and/or
  • processing your medical clearance request.

At other times, we collect your personal information to carry out our functions and activities because we have a legitimate business interest in handling your information for these functions and activities. Further information about these other purposes is contained in our Privacy Policy.

What would happen if we did not collect your personal information?

If we cannot collect your personal information as described above, we will not be able to process your flight, holiday or experience booking, or your Special Assistance, medical clearance or other requests. In addition, we may not be able to fully investigate an incident, complaint or claim, or provide you with all or some of our other products and services.

Who will we disclose your personal information to?

We may disclose your personal information:

  • to our related companies (including Velocity Frequent Flyer), our airline and non-airline partners;
  • to travel and booking agents and third parties who provide us with (or help us provide) products and services including catering, ground handling, transport, accommodation, technology-related support services and call centre services;
  • another person if they made the booking on your behalf, are named in your booking or if they are travelling with you as a support person;  
  • if your booking includes an ABN, is made through a business’ corporate travel agreement or a government travel agreement (or for official government purposes) with Virgin Australia, or is linked to a Virgin Australia Business Flyer account, to the relevant business / government body (or their representative);
  • to law enforcement agencies, regulatory authorities and governments in Australia and around the world and their service providers for security, customs, immigration and public health and safety purposes;
  • to the account holder or card holder of a credit card, travel bank or other form of payment used to pay for your booking;
  • to any other person or organisation from whom you have asked us to obtain or to disclose health and other personal information, for example, your doctor;
  • to third parties providing digital or other technology services (including digital assistants that utilise voice, virtual and other technology), where you have authorised the third party to receive information that we hold about you; and
  • in the event of an emergency or other incident in which you are involved, we may disclose your personal information to government departments and agencies and other support organisations involved in the emergency/incident response, and to your family member(s) who contact us seeking information about you or the emergency/incident. 

We may also disclose to and/or update your booking on request from, any person who can provide the Booking Reference for your booking and confirm the full name of one or more passengers or meet other verification criteria. It is very important that you do not share your Booking Reference with another person who you do not wish to have access to your personal information or booking information. If a third party makes a booking for you (such as a family member or friend, travel or booking agent, sales agent, a business you work for or other representative as part of a corporate or group booking), they will be provided with your Booking Reference.

Also, if you add an ABN to your booking or provide your booking details to a business, that business may receive information from us about your booking and travel arrangements, make changes to your booking and receive benefits in relation to your booking (such as loyalty points).

There may be other circumstances in which we need to disclose your personal information, as described in our Privacy Policy.

Overseas disclosure of your personal information

We are based in Australia, so your personal information will be processed in Australia. However, we are likely to disclose your personal information to countries located outside of Australia where:

  • you are travelling to or from other countries (including to ground handlers, local law enforcement and security agencies, our airline and other partners, hotels and other service providers who are providing you with a product or service);
  • our third party service providers are located overseas; and/or
  • our Velocity Frequent Flyer and Velocity Business Program partners are located overseas.

See our Privacy Policy for a list of the countries to which we may disclose your personal information.

How long will we keep your personal information for?

Our Privacy Policy contains information about how long we will keep your personal information.

Access and correction of your personal information

Our Privacy Policy contains information about how you can access or correct your personal information (as well as additional rights which might apply depending on where you are located).

Privacy queries and complaints

Our Privacy Policy contains information about how you can make a privacy complaint or ask us a question about our privacy practices and how we will deal with a privacy complaint or respond to your query. You can contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@virginaustralia.com.

Last updated June 2022