A routine flight from Melbourne to Sydney turned into something special yesterday when a couple decided to get married onboard. Melbourne couple Elaine Tiong and Luke Serdar decided to tie the knot at 40,000ft after rescheduling their wedding for months. With the airline's help, the couple finally got their dream wedding!

Love in the air

According to News.com.au, Melbourne-based couple Elaine Tiong and Luke Serdar had long been planning their wedding their dream wedding. They were originally scheduled to be married in Italy last summer but border restrictions ruled out such a plan. Instead, the couple combined their love of flying and opted to elope on a domestic flight instead!

The couple decided Valentine's Day would be the perfect occasion to tie the knot and were booked on a flight for the same day. However, Victoria's snap lockdown meant they had to cancel their flight. But they did not let COVID-19 get in the way again, rescheduling their flight for Thursday! This time, everything went perfectly.

The couple came to the airport dressed for the occasion, prepared to tie the knot at 40,000 feet. The wedding was officiated over the flight's PA system, by actress Tottie Goldsmith, with 150 surprised passengers joining the celebration too. While everyone was masked up and health protocols were in place, it was clear the couple were overjoyed!

The couple is currently enjoying their honeymoon in Sydney, and in a statement, they said,

"This was a one in a billion opportunity…it’s just so special. When I was drawing up my dream wedding this was obviously so different to that but now we’ve experienced it, we’re so glad it worked out this way...We feel very privileged because we know lots of couples who had their weddings cancelled due to COVID, so we feel very lucky Virgin Australia allowed us to do this.”

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Virgin Australia helps out

Virgin Australia was key to making their first mid-flight wedding, on VA841, go smoothly. Aside from documenting the moment in the sky, the couple was helped in planning the festivities and also received a signed certificate from the pilot.

Passengers on the flight all received a heart-shaped biscuit to celebrate the occasion, not a usual part of Virgin's current bare-bones meal service.

Overall, the story provided a rare source of happy news in a difficult year for most globetrotters. With borders firmly closed for the coming months, the couple made sure that their special day wouldn't be ruined by pandemic restrictions (even after the close calls). It's safe to say this will be a wedding to remember!

Kicking it up

The recently restructured Virgin Australia is also planning its future, revealing plans for what its offerings will looking under new management. The carrier will upgrade its business class inflight service offerings in the next month, just in time for Easter. Virgin wants to stick by its corporate clients and is trying to stave off challenges from a dominant Qantas.

For now, more airlines globally are hoping for international travel to resume and traffic levels to pick up as the vaccine rollout increases in pace globally.