Virgin Australia clears deck for new operations boss

Global aviation consultant John Thomas will head the airline’s domestic and international operations.

Mark Hassell is to leave Virgin Australia this month.

Virgin Australia chief customer officer Mark Hassell will leave the airline by the end of this month as the company clears its executive decks for the arrival of its new domestic and international operations boss John Thomas.

Mr Hassell’s resignation comes after four years at the airline and follows the departure of two other high-profile executives — the airline’s chief commercial officer Judith Crompton and chief operating officer Gary Hammes — who were effectively demoted in June to make room for Mr Thomas, a global aviation consultant brought on by Virgin chief John Borghetti to head the airline’s domestic and international operations.

Mr Hammes left Virgin at the end of last month and Ms Crompton and Mr Hassell are expected to go by the end of this month.

Mr Thomas will join Virgin from the end of this month from the management consulting firm LEK. Over the past 25 years, he has advised many of the world’s leading airlines on their commercial, operational and financial strategies.

Virgin has already begun re­organising its corporate structure in preparation for Mr Thomas’s arrival. Mr Thomas will take carriage of 12 business units including in-flight experience, ground operations, network, and flight operations. Engineering, product and safety will also report into him.

Mr Thomas is expected to play a big role in streamlining Virgin’s business.

It is expected that as much as 10 per cent of management ranks will be cut.

The restructure will allow Mr Borghetti to focus on the airline’s partnership with its new Chinese shareholders, HNA Group and Nanshan Group.

“The Virgin Australia Group now has a number of significant businesses, each with a different focus. Appropriately, these businesses — Virgin Australia, Tiger­air Australia, Velocity Frequent Flyer and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines & Virgin Australia Cargo — are each now led by a single person reporting to the group CEO John Borghetti,” said a Virgin spokeswoman.

“A number of group functions also report to the CEO, such as CFO, government relations, people and public affairs, supporting the different business units.”