Virgin Australia Holdings (VAH) has announced that Virgin Australia Regional (VA, Perth International) will retain its two A320-200s despite an earlier decision to largely phase out the type from the group by 2019.

Earlier this year, VAH announced its Tigerair Australia (Melbourne Tullamarine) budget unit would transition from an A320-denominated fleet to the B737 over the next three years in a bid to increase cost efficiencies across the group. The LCC is the only one of VAH's units to operate the A320 on a large scale employing fourteen units.

However, in a recent statement, VAH confirmed that Virgin Australia Regional (VARA) would indeed retain its two A320s - VH-FNP (cn 429) and VH-YUD (cn 1922) - for continued use on flights to Cocos Islands and Christmas Island as well as on charter and FIFO (Fly-In/Fly-Out) contracts.

Aside from VARA's two A320s, VAH plans to operate just five overall types by 2019 including the ATR72, Fokker 100, B737, the A330, and the B777. It has already begun retiring other unwanted aircraft such as the Fokker 50 and E190.