Home » News » Virgin Australia to cut 150 head office roles, pauses JV with Delta Air Lines

16 September, 2020

Virgin Australia to cut 150 head office roles, pauses JV with Delta Air Lines

Virgin Australia’s imminent emergence out of administration continues to take shape, with the embattled airline flagging more redundancies.

The 150 head office job cuts are in addition to the 3,000 roles revealed last month as part of Virgin’s six-point blueprint for success under the guidance of Bain Capital, which has been approved to take over the carrier by creditors.

“We have informed our people of some minor structural changes which will position the business for the transition period that lies ahead of us,” A Virgin spokesperson told Travel Weekly.

“Unfortunately, this will result in around 150 roles being impacted in the corporate and head office workforce, and we will support all team members closely through this process.

“We have also been required to review the number of head office team members currently stood up, with a view to make additional stand-downs over the coming weeks. All stood-down team members will continue to receive JobKeeper, provided they are eligible.

“This crisis is having an extraordinary impact on our industry and our people and making decisions which impact their lives is never easy. However, with the borders remaining closed and travel demand low, we must continue to make the tough calls to help see us through this pandemic.”

Travel Weekly understands the structural changes are minimal, with divisional repointing following the departure of chief experience officer Danielle Keighery, who oversaw product and customer functions, inflight services, branding and marketing, PR and media relations, and internal communications.

Courtney Petersen’s role of chief loyalty officer has been expanded to chief marketing and loyalty officer.

In other news, Virgin and Delta Air Lines have paused their joint venture alliance as a consequence of government-imposed international travel restrictions and the subsequent suspension of Virgin-operated services to Los Angeles.

Delta will continue to codeshare on Virgin Australia domestic services and the partners will continue to offer reciprocal frequent flyer benefits to Velocity and Sky Miles members.

Virgin Australia and Delta Air Lines have been in a JV alliance since 2011.

Delta remains committed to serving Australia and currently plans to maintain a minimum of three flights per week between Los Angeles and Sydney.

Virgin Australia Group CEO and managing director Paul Scurrah will be speaking at the travel industry’s most thought-provoking conference, Travel DAZE 2020. To find out more or to register, click here.

Featured image source: Wikimedia Commons/Commander Keane

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administration airline aviation Bain Capital delta air lines job cuts redundancies virgin virgin australia