Airline launches lottery for travelers who take middle seat

• More than $230,000 worth of prizes will be given away through April 23 to travelers "who either select or who are assigned a middle seat" on Virgin Australia.

The big picture: Less than 1% of travelers chose the middle seat intentionally as their first seat preference, a Virgin Australia social media survey in May found.

• The aisle seat was the preferred seat for 67% of the 7,500 respondents and the window got about 34% of the vote.

Why it matters: The new contest and Bring on Wonderful campaign follow Virgin Australia's 24-month transformation, which returns the airline to profitability.

• The airline filed and exited bankruptcy in 2020.

Yes, but: The contest is open to its Velocity members who are Australian residents and 18 or older, according to the fine print.

• They also need to fly in a middle seat on a Virgin Australia-operated domestic flight by April 23.

Flashback: Many airlines kept the middle seats empty in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic to reduce exposure.

More from Axios:

• Ye not a billionaire after Adidas ends Yeezy deal
• Amazon adding Venmo as a payment option by Black Friday
• Unilever recalls dry shampoo products for benzene risk
• McDonald's McRib coming back for a "farewell tour"