VB seem to think so!
Australia’s Virgin Blue is launching a daily non-stop service from Melbourne to Mildura, a small regional route that is currently only served by turboprop aircraft from rival carriers.
Virgin Blue says in a statement that it will be launching a daily non-stop service on the route stating on 13 October.
It will be using 78-seat Embraer 170s which are “25% quicker than the existing turboprop aircraft currently operating on the route”, making the flight time 1hr compared to 1hr 20min, it says.
The competitors on the route are Regional Express and QantasLink which operate Saab 340s and Bombardier Q-series aircraft respectively. Each has around 25 flights per week on the route according to Innovata.
Mildura is a large rural town on the Murray River bordering the states of Victoria and New South Wales. The main industry there is fruit orchards and fruit processing.