New Virgin CEO

[RooFlyer]

From The Oz:

Virgin names new chief

Former DP World Australia boss Paul Scurrah has secured the job as

chief executive of Virgin Australia.

An announcement about his appointment is expected to be made public shortly.

Competition for the top job at Virgin Australia had recently narrowed to a two-horse race, with a top executive at Scandinavian airline SAS - believed to be chief executive Richard Gustafson - in contention with Mr Scurrah.

Former Hawaiian Airlines head Mark Dunkerley has also recently been in the contest.

DP World Australia is an Australian container port and supply chain operator.

 

[MartyMan]

From the ASX announcement....

Starting his career in aviation at Australian Airlines, Paul has also held positions at Qantas and Ansett Australia, and was a key figure in the establishment of Regional Express Airlines (REX). His career in aviation spanned multiple divisions including commercial, customer service, government, sales, and marketing. After eight years in aviation, Paul moved to the tourism sector with executive roles at Tourism Queensland, Flight Centre, and AOT Holidays. Whilst at Flight Centre, Paul was responsible for developing their global strategic plan and acquiring the online company that propelled Flight Centre to the number one travel site at the time.Paul’s experience in travel then led him to the transport industry, specifically QR Limited, as Executive General Manager at QR Passenger and then CEO at Queensland Rail......Paul was later appointed Executive Vice President Commercial & Marketing at Australia’s largest rail freight operator, Aurizon, and was responsible for revenue close to $4.0 billion as well as managing a $3.7 billion fleet with over 800 locomotives.Since2013, Paul has been CEO and Managing Director at Australia's biggest port and supply chain operator, DP World Australia.....

 

[melb78]

lets hope he does get things moving. JB did a good job I felt

 

[grubbidok]

If he was part of REX I hope he starts taking VA's regional aspirations seriously again. VA had massive potential here (and it was a great USP from QF) and they destroyed it (e.g. p**ing WA government off to lose regional contract there; handing everything over to Alliance - even branding - for regional routes; lopping off unique routes like SYD-MKY; focusing regional on FIFO routes rather than 'real' sustainable long-term ones). IMO you can't be a real national airline if you're just flying between the five major capitals.

Super interesting that he has had both passenger-focused and freight-focused roles. I assume this suggests diversification a priority strategy at VA

 

[ozstamps]

Well sounds like he has extensive in the field experience, unlike Australia Post appointing last 2 CEOs from - Banking - Ahmed Fahour, who nearly sent them broke, and paid himself $10 million a year for doing so, and they replaced that complete dead loss with Christine Holgate who ran Blackmore Health Foods. I kid you not.

Insane.

Anyway best of luck to the new man at Virgin.

 

[Alyopsis]

If he was part of REX I hope he starts taking VA's regional aspirations seriously again. VA had massive potential here (and it was a great USP from QF) and they destroyed it (e.g. p**ing WA government off to lose regional contract there; handing everything over to Alliance - even branding - for regional routes; lopping off unique routes like SYD-MKY; focusing regional on FIFO routes rather than 'real' sustainable long-term ones). IMO you can't be a real national airline if you're just flying between the five major capitals.

My thoughts exactly

 

[melb78]

I wonder if he will start looking into getting into *A or take the airline into pvt hands

 

[HS-TQE]

I wonder if he will start looking into getting into *A or take the airline into pvt hands

Joining an Alliance (let alone *A) would be very low down the priority list for the new CEO, and two, NZ will still use their veto to block any VA entry into *A.

I can't see the new CEO (or VA's still very complicated shareholder list) pandering to NZ/Luxon's demands to "give up all international" and "dump Delta" as an alleged 'condition' of joining *A.

Luxon's alleged demands for VA to "give up all international" and all the other shareholders in VA dismissing NZ as being "selfish" is one of the reasons why NZ exited VA in the first place.

If anything, if VA are to revert to a mostly domestic carrier, the closest thing they are going to get is likely under a potential future majority DL ownership (from the EY/HNA stakes), with their only international being NZ and LAX. Along with the nickname of "Delta Australia" alongside their sisters at "Delta UK" aka Virgin Atlantic.

Edit: Source for Luxon's alleged demands for VA to "give up all international"
Virgin Australia strategy, CEO search complicated by airline investors | Reuters

 

[CPMaverick]

LAX is VA's biggest international destination and DL is a great partner. They couldn't maintain that and join *A.

What would they gain from joining *A? A coughpy partner with UA? A forced relationship with ex-partner NZ? Ok, maybe a more cohesive lounge experience, but that's about it.

Alliances are going out of style. Never gonna happen.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Alliances are going out of style. Never gonna happen.

I'll take a contrarian approach - the alliances will grow and mege into sinlge operators.

 

[docjames]

With DL as their strongest and most consistent partner and flying to LAX, and their other major international destination being HKG with VS as the partner there, surely tying into a "DL" alliance with Skyteam and VS is the way forward.

US well served with DL, UK served by VS, EU served by connection to KL in many Asian destinations. Would open up some Asian network for them for O+D ex-Aus and carry ex-AMS pax into Aus destinations. Plus they also have the option of KE to serve other destinations in Asia.


As much as everyone on AFF seems to want them to join Star Alliance, it would seem Skyteam would work just as well for them and may be easier to negotiate given the historic NZ issue.

 

[moa999]

I'll take a contrarian approach - the alliances will grow and mege into sinlge operators.

Can't see it happening with many airlines still government owned and protectionism backbone the increase.

Closest you might get would be say a Single Market in Asia (similar to EU) but I can't even see that happening...

As for the new Virgin CEO.
Maybe we will be boarding into freight containers at the airport, then craned onto the aircraft

As well as his airline experience, I assume his other major skill is dealing with foreign bosses.

 

[CPMaverick]

I'll take a contrarian approach - the alliances will grow and mege into sinlge operators.

Alliances are fracturing. Mergers are definitely in vogue, but not exclusively amongst alliance members. And alliance infighting has never been more public.

Most alliance members couldn't merge if they wanted to... it is illegal.

More and more cross-alliance partnerships and codeshares are creeping in, airlines no longer care about alliances... they only care about mutually beneficial partnerships. Much easier and more profitable.

Even if you believe alliances will merge with each other... does that make any case for VA joining *A? That's the sub discussion here

 

[CPMaverick]

With DL as their strongest and most consistent partner and flying to LAX, and their other major international destination being HKG with VS as the partner there, surely tying into a "DL" alliance with Skyteam and VS is the way forward.

US well served with DL, UK served by VS, EU served by connection to KL in many Asian destinations. Would open up some Asian network for them for O+D ex-Aus and carry ex-AMS pax into Aus destinations. Plus they also have the option of KE to serve other destinations in Asia.


As much as everyone on AFF seems to want them to join Star Alliance, it would seem Skyteam would work just as well for them and may be easier to negotiate given the historic NZ issue.

Skyteam has surprisingly great coverage to Australia so on paper I agree that this is better than *A. Especially if VA can align with KLM/AF to connect to Europe.

However as already stated, alliances come with too many downsides. Losing SQ and SA, and perhaps EY, is not worth joining an alliance.

 

[docjames]

Skyteam has surprisingly great coverage to Australia so on paper I agree that this is better than *A. Especially if VA can align with KLM/AF to connect to Europe.

However as already stated, alliances come with too many downsides. Losing SQ and SA, and perhaps EY, is not worth joining an alliance.

Has having them been ragingly successful for VA? EY i'm sure would be keen to sell out, SQ seem ambivalent on their holding. I'd say engaging with an alliance might actually well offset any "loss" from abandoning SQ/EY.

I agree thought SA leaves quite a hole to Africa. Until CASA allow better than ETOPS180 then JNB/Africa are problematic ex-Aus. KQ is a part of Skyteam, however i think we're a way away from VA offering SYD/MEL/PER-NBO. Although PER-NBO (still air distance) is way less than SYD and doesn't require deviation outside ETOPS180. And KQ have great options across Africa from NBO.

 

[HS-TQE]

Considering EY and SA are also financially crippled, I'm not sure whether if they also "count" as losses if VA ends up as a full SkyTeam member.

Saying that, IMO VA is likely to be "de-facto" SkyTeam without actually joining SkyTeam, like their sisters at VS. Most of VA's partners are likely to be either unaligned or from SkyTeam with only SQ (JV) and AC (codeshare agreement) as their major Star Alliance partners.

Considering SQ is not likely to do a "takeover" anytime soon (or in the short-medium term future) with the numerous SQ articles over the years turning out to be fizzers. I'd say VA moving towards an Alliance is very unlikely (if at all) in the medium term.

SkyTeam is VA's only alliance choice available to them and can really only see that happening (if at all) should DL takes a stake in the longer term, and it would likely be in a potential future VA/VS joint SkyTeam announcement.

 

[Mattg]

LAX is VA's biggest international destination and DL is a great partner. They couldn't maintain that and join *A.

What would they gain from joining *A? A coughpy partner with UA? A forced relationship with ex-partner NZ? Ok, maybe a more cohesive lounge experience, but that's about it.

Alliances are going out of style. Never gonna happen.

I would be very happy to see Virgin joining SkyTeam.

 

[juddles]

Virgin is fighting the unwinnable, internationally. Australia is a tiny place, and there is no room for two profitable, australian based carriers.

 

[pauly7]

Joining an Alliance (let alone *A) would be very low down the priority list for the new CEO, and two, NZ will still use their veto to block any VA entry into Star

Technically correct. The one thing to consider is that JB rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way and NZ was one spectacular example of that. There was clearly a personal issue in that relationship. With JB finally removed, it could open the door for a reset at some point on some level... stranger things have happened!

 

[jase05]

I would be very happy to see Virgin joining SkyTeam.

Same. We have found ourselves flying SkyTeam more and more as each year passes, mainly to Asia.