Virgin Australia uses machine learning for offers and works on a ChatGPT app
Virgin Australia rebuilt its data platform on Databricks, where it runs recommendation and propensity models for loyalty and marketing. In November 2025 it became the first Australian airline to announce a collaboration with OpenAI, including work on a Virgin Australia app inside ChatGPT. It is also launch partner for Sabre's retailing platform built with Google.
The operating picture
Data first, then the assistants
Virgin Australia Airbus A320 at XCH. Photograph: paullymac / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped to fit). Illustrates the airline, not an AI deployment.
Virgin Australia replaced an on-premises data warehouse with Databricks, according to a Databricks customer story first published in January 2022. Its data scientists use the platform's MLflow tools for recommendation engines and propensity models that tailor loyalty and marketing offers.
The newer work faces customers. The airline's November 2025 OpenAI announcement covers an app inside ChatGPT, still at the idea stage, enterprise AI tools for staff and an AI Trip Planner already launched. Virgin Australia is also launch partner for SabreMosaic, adopting more than 40 Sabre products over two years, starting with the Air Price IQ and Ancillary IQ offer tools; that record stays in the wider register because its AI description is Sabre's and covers the platform in general.
Selected implementations
The work behind the evidence
01 / Deployed
Models for offers, built on one data platform
The operational problem
Loyalty offers and marketing work only if the airline can see a customer's history across bookings, Velocity membership and service, and act on it quickly. Separate data stores and slow pipelines make that hard.
What the evidence reports
Databricks says Virgin Australia uses its platform for recommendation engines and propensity models, including next best actions for loyalty and marketing, with MLflow replacing earlier SAS-based workflows. Emma Taylor, head of technology, is quoted on the move to one shared platform. Databricks credits the change with 90% faster deployment of machine learning models, 75% more near real-time data and 50% faster ingestion, and lists a 44% reduction in mishandled baggage among project outcomes.
Operational significance
The data platform is what makes the later AI work possible. Of the published figures, faster model deployment is the one most directly about AI.
Evidence still needed
All figures are Databricks', without baseline or period. The baggage reduction is not linked to a specific model and should not be read as an AI result.
A source can verify an announcement without verifying its projected outcome.
02 / Contracted
A ChatGPT app still at the idea stage
The operational problem
An airline that wants to sell through an AI assistant needs its flights and fares to be searchable there on its own terms. Chief executive Dave Emerson said Virgin Australia wants to meet customers where they already are, including ChatGPT.
What the evidence reports
Virgin Australia announced on 28 November 2025 that it was the first Australian airline to launch a collaboration with OpenAI. It is looking at what a Virgin Australia app in ChatGPT could look like, built with OpenAI's Apps SDK, where customers would describe a trip and be shown relevant flights, and will give staff enterprise AI tools. The release says the airline had recently launched an AI Trip Planner for building trips and checking fares and Velocity reward seat availability, and that it uses AI-driven insights to forecast demand and support dynamic pricing.
Operational significance
The Trip Planner is live; the ChatGPT app is not. The distinction matters because the announcement's headline concerns the app.
Evidence still needed
No launch date for the ChatGPT app, no usage figures for the Trip Planner and no detail on the demand forecasting models have been published.
Other records are shown separately, including non-AI technology and programmes at different stages of deployment. A register entry does not establish a measured AI benefit.
SabreMosaic offer-and-order platform at Virgin Australia · Deployed · limited scope
Virgin Australia is the launch partner for SabreMosaic, which Sabre developed with Google, and plans to adopt more than 40 products in phases over two years, Aviation Business News reported on 23 September 2024. Adoption of SabreMosaic Air Price IQ and Ancillary IQ has already begun, the report said.
A source can verify an announcement without verifying its projected outcome.
Editorial assessment
Virgin Australia built the data foundation first, then began adding tools for customers on top through OpenAI and Sabre. Most of what it has announced since 2024 is still being adopted.
The next update should establish whether the ChatGPT app launched, how widely the Trip Planner is used, and whether the Sabre offer tools now set prices across the network.
Live data from the Aerostack register. Status reflects published evidence only. See Our approach for how records are graded.
Aerostack register · 3 tracked deployments
Aerostack tracks AI deployments across airports and airlines, with the published evidence behind each record. Photography is real aviation imagery. Record thumbnails may show the named airport or airline; other photographs do not.
