Paul Scurrah announces takeoff from Pacific National at year’s end

Paul Scurrah is leaving the top job at Pacific National but does that mean he’s ready to retake the reins at Virgin Australia?

Paul Scurrah has announced his resignation as Pacific National chief executive, but has ruled out a return to Virgin Australia as the airline seeks to replace Jayne Hrdlicka.

Mr Scurrah took the top job at Pacific National in April 2021 after US private equity firm Bain Capital bought Virgin Australia from administration in late 2020 and installed Ms Hrdlicka as CEO.

At the time Mr Scurrah had only led Virgin Australia for 18 months, and he had intended to continue with the airline to guide it through the pandemic and out of financial distress.

Instead, Mr Scurrah found himself navigating Pacific National through the Covid-19 crisis and said he told the board upfront he did not see himself as a long-term CEO.

He planned to stay on until the end of the year to give the company time to find a replacement and said it was his desire to remain in transport and logistics “in some capacity”.

“I will leave (Pacific National) with the most incredible high-quality team that’s joined to do this job, with a lot of momentum on our safety program, the highest level customer satisfaction, significant improvement in our operating performance and we’re now really starting to commercialise the business and we’re seeing a strong trajectory and momentum,” Mr Scurrah told The Australian.

Mr Scurrah admitted aviation remained an industry that was dear to him but indicated there would have to be an alignment of values for him to return to the airline business.

“Jet fuel’s always in my blood but I have plenty of time to decide what my next move is and I want to ensure it’s one where I have strong alignments with every stakeholder and strong alignments for the sector, so I’ll give myself the luxury of time to work that out,” he said.

In the 2023 financial year, Pacific National reported a $59m net loss and a fall in statutory earnings from $697m to $619m, which was blamed on major floods and industrial action.

However, during the first half of the 2024 financial year it has a 7.7 per cent improvement in earnings to $324.1m and the company was on target to achieve $24m in cost savings.

The retention of significant accounts played a big part in the turnaround; Austrans and Linfox were among those to commit to 10-year contracts in recent months.

Paul Scurrah has called time on his leadership at Pacific National. Picture: Daniel Pockett

Mr Scurrah said restoring the company’s reputation with customers was something he was particularly proud of.

“The team has done an enormous job there, and in recent times we have succeeded in locking away our customer base for a long period,” he said.

“The large majority of our customers are long-term contracts, which is a reflection of the significant operational improvements and efficiencies we’ve made and far greater levels of reliability.”

One of the biggest challenges he faced after heading up an airline was the starkly different attitude to the rail freight industry and the difficulty attracting interest and support.

“I have been able to see a real dichotomy of circumstances with how much attention airlines get and how easy it is to open doors, versus how difficult it is to get that attention for freight rail particularly in this country and how important it is to invest heavily in that,” Mr Scurrah said.

“But I was really proud that we led a couple of positive outcomes, and when I say we I mean Pacific National. For the first time in my time in the industry we saw a significant funding boost in the recent federal budget, with $1bn to go into the resilience of the existing rail network.”

In a message to the company’s 3400 employees, Pacific National chair Catherine Livingstone said the board was “sorry to see Paul leave” and expressed sincere thanks for his positive impact, ongoing dedication and outstanding leadership.

“We have initiated a global executive search to identify Paul’s successor, someone who will continue to uphold our values and continue to drive Pacific National’s success,” Ms Livingstone said.

Originally published as Paul Scurrah announces takeoff from Pacific National at year’s end