JT leaving Virgin this week
 

Announced by JB today. John Thomas leaving end of the week.

Tiger CEO Rob Sharp to take over in acting capacity.

Tiger HOFO Peter Wilson to be acting Tiger CEO.

No doubt left not on good terms.

Not good for Virgin.

Understatement of the decade!

VA must be in a very bad way if he has done this already.

Better get my apps in and beat the rush, he obviously is!

Bit of turn over in upper management....

I got so excited when I saw the email's title...

That quickly turned to depression when I saw that the wrong person was going.

JT's mistake was that he knew how to make money and run an airline, a mistake Chris Luxton also made - in that they both obviously showed a certain someone up.

Can't wait for the shareholders meeting this year. If they thought last year was bad, this one will be a bloodbath. :ouch:

Hmmmm, I don't know about JT but I'm pretty sure Mr Luxton's apparent success is largely due to things his predecessor put in place and the drop in fuel prices. I don't think there's any way you could stretch it to say he showed anyone up or Air New Zealand's current financial returns can be directly attributed to CL.

Anyhow, back to the topic of the thread.

There aren't many reasons why a senior exec would leave after 12 months. Two main ones would be...

1. Personality clash at the top making it impossible to do one's job, or
2. Inside knowledge that the place is a house of cards and about to collapse.

Either one of those is not good for the staff at Virgin.

The way it unfolded looks more like a dismissal than a resignation. None of the usual 'spending more time with family', seeking a new challenge', or 'taking advantage of an exciting new opportunity' comments. In fact, no comments at all at this stage. This is going to rattle quite a few in the organisation. He was promoted to the extent that people thought he was to be the saviour of the airline & now he's out so quick that you would have missed it if you blinked. Interesting times ahead.

"It's understood Virgin management decided he was not the right fit for the role."

Or the pineapple wouldn't fit.

Looks like Virgin Aust shares are going to open at their lowest price ever.

I laugh when I read the early stuff about Virgin and that JB was the Messiah [when really he's just a naughty boy].

The proof is in the pudding as they say. No matter how much spin people put on the performance of VA it has turned out to be nothing more than a revisit of the last days of Ansett. Now propped up by foreign cash and very slow to pay creditors [inside source] and from a couple of creditors I know...

Of course he wasn't the right fit. He actually had some idea how to run an airline!

Time to close VA down and let the staff get on with there life, not have to worry about there jobs any longer.

Best option would be to wind VA/TT down and sell there assets and leases off, so that Australia is able to keep an reasonable amount of airservice going without an major effect, while keeping some competition. I would break the airlines fleet up by NZ and QF as they would have to pick the slack.

QF:
- Takes 75% of VA 738 fleet and crew
- QF will use the 738 to fill gaps left by VA

NZ:
- Takes VA/TT A320s and crew
- NZ use the A320 to run an one the hour service between SYD/MEL/BNE
- Takes VA 77W's and crew
- NZ uses TT 320 AOC to use as an base for there AU Operation, 77Ws are moved to the ZK register.

A330, ATRs would all be returned to lessors or sold if owned.

Oh dear that sounds a bit dire.

Some interesting points in Cave Man's response.

B777- Yep that is actually what Air NZ was chasing. Reality though is NZALPA wouldn't allow them to jump the list to maintain commands etc.
QF taking on VA's aircraft. Nope not going to happen. Easier to follow the AN collapse model. Let someone else deal with the leased aircraft and organise your own as well as short term crew (In 2001 it was actually AN crew on the B737)
A330's. Yep have to go. High leases for what is now a highly depreciated aircraft in the second hand market. i.e Book value V actual Value is shall we say a bit different
ATR's Same as above.
NZ would be nuts to take TT's A320's (mostly on shorter leases) as they could get new ones pretty fast from Airbus if they needed them.

End result is unless there is a huge hidden issue at VA they won't be shutting down anytime soon or having an administrator appointed. All the above is speculation at the higher end of the market.

Also you can't really sell leases. You can subject to your lease requirements do a sub lease but that is usually dependent on the owner of the aircraft. Since the lease rates are so not that competitive in the market I would be surprised if they are attractive aircraft for this purpose.