Allan Leibowitz, Skift
All eyes are on Virgin Australia’s new CEO, Paul Scurrah, to see if he can stem the losses and lead the airline into profitability. Scurrah inherits a very different airline from the one John Borghetti joined eight years ago, but shareholders are keen to see profits and a return on their investment.
3 months ago
Allan Leibowitz, Skift
Experts were tipping a slow-down in travel in Australia due to the falling dollar and rising fuel costs, but the country’s two main airlines are seeing revenue growth, mostly because they have reduced capacity and halted the price war.
6 months ago
Allan Leibowitz, Skift
It’s been one of the dirty secrets of the airline business for decades, but the #MeToo movement is now exposing sexual harassment among cabin crew in Australia. Accusations from a leading union have forced the airlines to issue strong denials about systemic problems.
7 months ago
Allan Leibowitz, Skift
Australia’s airlines are urging the government to rein in the airports, claiming they are abusing their monopoly power to extract unreasonable charges. It’s a tough call for Canberra, which wants to see more investment in airport infrastructure, but doesn’t want to be seen allowing price gouging from some of the most profitable airport operators in the world.
8 months ago
Manuel Baigorri, Vinicy Chan and Steven Yang, Bloomberg
Perhaps a new investor will help provide Virgin Australia with direction. It would be nice if Australians had a true second choice other than Qantas. But Virgin Australia has been suffering.
8 months ago
Allan Leibowitz, Skift
As the Air New Zealand-Virgin Australia alliance on services across the Tasman Sea comes to an end, Virgin will not take the snub from its Kiwi counterpart lying down. It is already flagging improved services and better frequent flyer rewards and trying to block rival Qantas from working with its former ally.
8 months ago
Angus Whitley, Bloomberg
In the current era, airlines generally thrive when they're massive in size with global reach. Virgin Australia has six long-haul airplanes, making it tiny compared to Qantas. A transpacific joint venture with Delta Air Line helps, but it's not enough.
1 year ago
Allan Leibowitz, Skift
Both Qantas and Virgin Australia should have Wi-Fi available on all domestic flights by the end of 2018. While travelers want to stay connected, they probably won’t pay for Wi-Fi, but might choose flights on the basis of internet coverage, especially on longer routes.
1 year ago
Angus Whitley, Bloomberg
HNA's omissions and lack of transparency are deeply ingrained in the company's culture. This could end badly as regulators catch up with the Chinese company's aggressive investing style around the world.
1 year ago
Thomas Seal, Bloomberg
Innovations powered by cloud computing are on the way to streamline the flight check-in process, but will take some time to become available globally.
2 years ago
Angus Whitley, Bloomberg
While exiting a turnaround period is a successful feat for any airline, its really what happens over the next couple of years that counts. Will Qantas be able to maintain its current trajectory or will it slip back into bad old habits?
2 years ago
Eric Rosen, Bloomberg
Notably missing from this list are any of the U.S. legacy carriers. Just saying.
2 years ago