Virgin Australia has introduced that its current partnership with Qatar Airways might be “strengthened” as Qatar Airways Group strikes to accumulate a 25 per cent stake within the Australian airline.
The background: Virgin Australia has confronted important challenges this yr, with its outgoing CEO Jayne Hrdlicka describing the second half of the monetary yr as “tremendous robust” in September.
Hrdlicka took over as CEO in November 2020 after the USA personal fairness agency Bain Capital rescued Virgin from administration and chartered it by way of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
Tuesday’s announcement comes a yr after the Albanese authorities got here beneath hearth for knocking again .
The choice was scrutinised after it was revealed that Qantas lobbied the federal government towards permitting the additional flights.
The important thing quote: “This partnership brings the lacking piece to Virgin Australia’s longer-term technique and is a big vote of confidence in Australian aviation.” — Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO, Virgin Australia.
What else to know: In September, Hrdlicka performed down hypothesis Qatar Airways was looking for a stake within the airline, saying “some inventive fiction” had been written.
What occurs subsequent: Virgin has flagged that, topic to regulatory approvals, it might quickly fly to Doha from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth beneath a ‘moist lease’ with Qatar.
A moist lease entails one airline offering plane, full crew, upkeep and insurance coverage to a different airline.
Hrdlicka mentioned the brand new long-haul companies between Australia and Doha had been estimated to generate a good thing about round $3 billion to the Australian economic system by way of customer flows.
