Virgin Australia boss Jayne Hrdlicka hits out at Qatar Airways ‘rumour and innuendo’

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka hits out at “rumour and innuendo” about the airline’s future.

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka has hit out at reports that Qatar Airways iwillacquire a minority stake in the airline.

“We don’t play with rumour and innuendo. There’s been a lot of creative fiction written, I’ll just say that,” she said when asked if there was any truth to the reports while speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit in Brisbane on Friday.

Reports about talks between the airlines emerged in June and last week the Australian Financial Review reported Qatar Airways was “within days” of signing a deal, which would then need to be approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board.

It follows huge controversy last year around the federal government’s decision to block Qatar Airways’ request to operate more flights to Australia.

Qantas had made a submission opposing Qatar’s request, while those in support of the extra flights – like Virgin Australia – said it would help lower airfares between Australia and Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit in Brisbane. Picture: news.com.au

While Ms Hrdlicka didn’t explicitly confirm or deny the plan for Qatar to buy a minority stake, she did go on to highlight how dependent Virgin Australia was on its international partners.

“But our partners are absolutely essential to us and we have the world’s best partners – United Airlines, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Qatar, ANA, Hawaiian – we have the world’s best partners and we’re working every day to deepen those relationships and strengthen the experience we provide to our customers and do a better job selling together to business customers,” she said.

“It’s not lost on Virgin Australia that to compete effectively domestically, we actually have to be in a position where we can compete internationally for our customers.

“Anybody who’s flying frequently domestically also has international needs and we have to be able to provide an experience for them which rivals the competition.

“So, our international partners are more important us than any of our competitors because we don’t have a long-haul international business ourselves.”

The reports of Qatar Airways buying a stake in Virgin Australia comes after the federal government controversially blocked the Doha-based airline’s request for more flights to Australia. Picture: Pascal Pavani / AFP

Virgin Australia is owned by Bain Capital, which acquired the airline after it went into administration in 2020.

When speaking at Tourism Australia’s annual Destination Australia conference in March, aviation analyst Peter Harbison predicted Bain Capital would sell the airline this year.

“Private equity does not own airlines and operate airlines,” he said.

“Private equity makes money and private equity basically invests in products that look as if they can be improved, particularly when they are in a difficult position, maybe strip out a few costs, and later on sells down and makes a profit out of it.”

He said the foreign airlines would likely be interested in buying Virgin Australia.

Virgin Australia is owned by Bain Capital. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar

Jayne Hrdlicka reveals what’s next for her after stepping down

There has been no confirmation on when Ms Hrdlicka will leave her top role or who will replace her after she announced her plans to step down seven months ago.

Reflecting on her time as CEO, she said the last four and half years had felt like “dog years” but had also been the most rewarding experience of her professional career.

She described getting Virgin Australia back on its feet as “purposeful” work.

“It was also one the most intense and challenging periods you can imagine and I personally love that and thrive in that environment,” she said.

Behind the scenes, Ms Hrdlicka had an extremely difficult time at home.

“It also happened to coincide with one of the most confronting personal experiences you could ever have, in a kind of two pronged way with the loss of my husband to cancer and then the loss of my father,” she said.

“That’s just tough at a time when you’re so consumed in a very purposeful job that you love.”

Ms Hrdlicka is stepping down as CEO of the airline but it had not been revealed when. Picture: Alex Coppel

Ms Hrdlicka is now looking forward to a break before figuring out what she wants to do next.

“Given circumstances over the past several years I really need to spend more time with my boys. They are 17 and 19 and anyone who has teenagers [knows] they need you on tap,” she said.

“I really haven’t had the ability to do that when they’ve needed me most so I am going to be available for them.”

Ms Hrdlicka, who is also Tennis Australia chair, added: “Then I have a huge passion for tennis, and so I know I needed a little bit more time there.

“We have some big issues there globally that we need to address, and then we’ll see. That is both exciting and daunting because it’s a journey of possibilities.”