Borghetti helped Virgin take off

Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti took his first flight at seven, when his Italian parents brought him to Melbourne.

John Borghetti with cabin crew on an Airbus SAS A330. Picture: Bloomberg

Virgin Australia chief executive John Borghetti took his first trip on a jet at the age of seven, when his parents brought him to Melbourne from his birthplace, a small village north of Rome.

It was 1963 and he and his two siblings couldn’t speak a word of English. He attended Glenroy tech college in Melbourne’s northern suburbs and was bullied in the schoolyard.

But he will forever be indebted to his parents for leaving Italy.

“I am grateful that my parents made the brave decision to come here when I was seven and give me the opportunity to live in this great country,’’ he says.

“My Italian heritage is clearly important because it really defines my background. But Australia has given me an opportunity that I know I could not have had in Italy or most likely any other country.’’

Borghetti is best known for ­piloting the transformation of Virgin Australia from a struggling low-cost carrier into a full-service rival to Qantas and in the process surviving one of the bloodiest ­capacity wars the local aviation industry has ever seen.

Last year he convinced the Chinese conglomerates HNA Group and Nanshan to take 40 per cent of the Virgin share register, marking the biggest investments by any Chinese companies in the Australian aviation market.

But over his time at Virgin Borghetti has also served on numerous boards in the arts, sporting and charity arenas including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Ballet, Sydney FC soccer club and Care Australia.

So his Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia is awarded not only for services to aviation but to the broader spectrum of Australian society.

He remains a director on the board of Coca-Cola Amatil and was previously a director of NSW energy utility Energy Australia.

‘’The one thing you would hope any business leader of any sized firm remembers is that, yes, your role is all about running the business and making money, but it is also about making a contribution to the country,’’ Borghetti says.

“Virgin has been involved in sponsoring sports, the arts and charities. Yes, we do it because it ­financially makes sense, but in some cases we do it because it is the right thing to do. It is important people remember they do have a social responsibility.’’

One final challenge remains in his Virgin tenure: getting the airline to generate the profits it promised its powerhouse shareholders, which in addition to the Chinese include Singapore Airlines, Etihad Airways and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. They poured $852 million into the business last year.

Borghetti will not rest until Virgin is in the black and beyond.

“The hard work will never end. Either while I am here or not here (at Virgin),’’ he says.

“When the hard work ends you know you will go backwards.”