The VA checklist of fu#kups
The Virgin Blue business concept was, in theory, a good idea. Compass 1 and 2 had tried it but the timing simply wasn’t right. Australia wasn’t ready. An all 737 fleet based on an operating model like Southwest was the intention. And true, Virgin Blue started out that way. But executive greed took over and the reality was that the Pied Piper Branson and his cohorts in Fortitude Valley wanted to float the company after a couple of years, make many many millions for themselves and then swan dance the heck out of there with all of those shiny millions. DGAF about whatever eventuates. Amongst many mistakes they started VARA at the wrong time (end of the mining boom), threw money at Alliance, bought Skywest, bought Tiger, bought Embraers, multiple fuel hedging screwups, bought some desert thrashed EK 330’s, had multiple aircraft types (Peter Abel’s and the death of Ansett ring a bell?), PAC Blue, Virgin New Zealand and Virgin also started a half arsed semi business class, jerked themselves into a stupor over ‘game changing’, and had/have on their books more ‘specialists’ than the United Stars medical profession combined. Do I need to continue?
I’m sorry if this comes across all negative. I seriously don’t want to see any employee out of a job. But if it happens, it’s because of the muppets who have mismanaged the airline for the past 2 decades. The company is not geared up to withstand a ‘perfect storm’ of financial challenges, they never have been and I would say never will be.
Last edited by Paragraph377; 22nd Feb 2020 at 23:59.