Flight Centre boss Graham Turner backs Virgin bid, calls for restart of international travel

Tourism kingpin Graham “Skroo” Turner says he supports the Queensland Government’s bid for embattled airline Virgin and says it was “devastating” to hear cold water poured on plans to kickstart international travel.

QUEENSLAND tourism kingpin Graham “Skroo” Turner has thrown his backing behind the state’s bid to buy Virgin Australia and called for an imminent restart to some international tourism.

“These are unusual times and I see nothing wrong with it,” the Flight Centre boss said of the bid on ABC Radio.

“It would be great to have them (Virgin) remain in Queensland, be based in Queensland.”

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Mr Turner acknowledged, however, the airline would not be “an easy business to run”.

“Its history is pretty obvious, for the last ten years or so has been pretty average,” he said.

Mr Turner also said it was “devastating” to hear Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy say restrictions on international travel would stay in place for “some time”.

Flight Centre CEO Graham Turner.

Mr Turner argued it was likely a bilateral agreement could be reached to see travel between Australia, New Zealand and other Asian countries.

“I’m pretty confident that will be back within the next couple of months,” he said.

“Even somewhere like Vietnam … there is no reason why we shouldn’t be flying to places like that on a point-to-point basis in the next few months."

Mr Turner, whose own company Flight Centre has been decimated by the COVID-19-induced shutdown, said Virgin was critical to the nation’s recovery.

“We need two effective airlines to service domestic tourism and domestic business,” he said.

“Everyone accepts both for business and leisure travellers, it’s absolutely crucial.

“The lack of competition will almost certainly push prices up.”