Virgin Australia: Adelaide Lounge closure, temporary then new lounge

If you have been to Adelaide in the last 12 months, you will have noticed areas of the airport blocked off, or closed, as they revitalise and expand the end of the airport normally supporting Virgin Australia arrivals and departures.

More recently, the middle section which housed the Coopers branded ‘pub’ has closed, with a mini version opening in the concourse usually housing Qantas and Jetstar arrivals and departures.

Soon to be unveiled . . .

Well, we are days away from seeing the first part of the Adelaide terminal expansion project open, with what – new passenger facilities? new security facilities?, new lounge? NO, you guessed it – new retail!

In the never-failing struggle to turn airports into shopping centres with attached airborne bus terminals, Adelaide is extending its airport retail ‘offering’ – which is a coded way of saying ‘more shops’.

According to Australian Aviation the enhanced retail precinct will:

“showcase the best of South Australia’s food and wine experiences to the world.”

These include:

• Penfolds Wine Bar and Kitchen
• Adelaide Kitchen (inspired by laneway bars)
• Boost Juice
• Lego Kaboom (South Australia’s food and wine?)
• Soul Origin
• Airport Pharmacy

New Virgin Australia lounge in April

Further to this retail expansion, Virgin Australia is set to open a new lounge in April.

The current lounge is set for demolition and removal as of Wednesday 26 February. While the new lounge is not scheduled to open until April 2020, so potentially the airport is without Virgin Australia lounge for around six to eight weeks.

The loss of the old lounge will be no biggie. It was pretty basic, tiny, and crowded the last time I visited

Temporary lounge

From Wednesday, February 26, Virgin Australia will be running a ‘Summer Pop Up Lounge‘, situated along the concourse around Gates 15 – 16.

Virgin Australia has confirmed that its new Adelaide lounge will be the first of a new lounge concept to be rolled out across the Virgin Australia airport lounge network.

Pop Up Lounge

This will be even smaller than the current lounge, and as a result will have even tighter restrictions on who has access, and when they can access. The following passengers can use the lounge 90 minutes before their scheduled flight:

• Virgin Australia’s business class passengers
• lounge members
• elite Velocity frequent flyers
• guests travelling on the same flight as the member (Platinum 2 guests instead of 3

The following passengers will not be admitted to the pop-up lounge:

• all partner airline eligible
• single entry passes
• AMEX Platinum/Centurion cards
• no arrival access

Opening Times and amenities

The lounge – located around gates 15-16 – will open 60 minutes before the first flight. It will serve only cold grab-and-go items but will retain the indispensable barista-pulled coffee and adult beverages after 11 am.

The pop-up lounge won’t have any toilet or shower facilities. Guests will need to make do with the airport facilities.

You can access a full range of the restrictions on the Pop-Up lounge here.

2PAXfly Takeout

The lounge, that will close this week, won’t be missed by me. It was frankly, pretty un-noteworthy. If it wasn’t for the construction and lack of other facilities in the airport, the last time I was there, I would have preferred to be in the main part of the airport.

It’s exciting that Virgin Australia is launching a new concept for their lounges, and in my old hometown of Adelaide. I like the design of the current lounge in Sydney, but