Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane International) will use a recently launched wet-leased agreement with Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International) for two B777-300ERs to assess the opportunities for the return to in-house widebody operations, chief executive officer Dave Emerson said during a CAPA event in Cairns. However, any such decision is still years away.

"We will monitor the performance of these flights [to Doha Hamad International on Qatar Airways' metal] and see what the economics look like,” Emerson said.

The Australian carrier used to operate six A330-200s and five B777-300ERs under its Virgin Australia International AOC until 2020, but axed the widebody fleet during COVID-era restructuring. Under new owner Bain Capital, the airline focused on regional and narrowbody aircraft. In 2024, Qatar Airways Group acquired a 25% stake in the airline and launched a commercial partnership with it, which includes the wet-lease of two B777-300ERs for services from four Australian cities to Doha.

Emerson said that the two airlines were contemplating eventually converting the wet-leases into dry-leases, which would be a low-cost way of resuming in-house widebody operations. Evaluation of the results of the Doha flights, which launched only recently in June 2025, will likely take years before Virgin Australia decides whether "we have an investment case to put our own capital into long-haul." The Qatar Airways wet-lease has been authorised for five years until mid-2029.

Virgin Australia's in-house fleet currently comprises five A320-200s, nine B737-700s, seventy-eight B737-800s, nine B737-8s, and three F100s, ch-aviation data shows.