Virgin Australia will open two new lounges at Canberra in March as the airport’s new Western Concourse Terminal, which will be home to Virgin and regional carriers, becomes operational.

A Virgin Australia spokeswoman confirms the airline is “on track to open the lounge in March”, adding that the exact date isn’t confirmed – although Canberra Airport hopes to cut the ribbon on its shiny new terminal extension around the middle of the month.

Virgin’s twin Canberra lounges will share a massive footprint that’s substantially larger than the old well-worn lounge.

In addition to the standard Virgin lounge for business class travellers, lounge members and Platinum and Gold cardholders in the Velocity frequent flyer scheme there’ll also be an addition to The Club network of Virgin’s invitation-only lounges for hosting politicians, top-level executives and other VIPs.

The new lounges represent a vital catch-up for Virgin Australia’s capital presence, given that Qantas has been operating three modern lounges – the Qantas Club, Qantas Business Lounges and Chairman’s Lounge – in the airport’s Eastern Concourse Terminal since late 2010.

Read: Photos & review of Virgin Australia's Capital Connest business class

Also on Virgin’s lounge list for 2013 are Cairns and Hobart plus the mid-year completion of a substantial makeover for its Sydney Airport lounge, which will become a split-level flagship lounge for the airline.

A new upper level of the Sydney lounge opened in late December, with sections of the lower level being progressively renovated throughout the coming months.

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