Virgin delays ‘something truly wonderful’ for second time

The airline has postponed the announcement of ‘something truly wonderful’ for the second time, as it grapples with high cancellation rates and flight delays.

Virgin Australia, led by Jayne Hrdlicka, has postponed an event titled ‘a new era of flying’ for the second time. Picture: Sarah Marshall/NCA NewsWire

Virgin Australia has postponed a major announcement for the second time, amid a spate of sickness decimating the airline’s workforce and leading to widespread cancellations and delays.

The Brisbane hangar event, which was set to be held on Friday, was titled “a new era of flying” and promised to “unveil something truly wonderful”.

The announcement was scheduled to follow a “prelude” seven-course degustation dinner at Bacchus restaurant the previous night with Virgin executives.

There was no mention of CEO Jayne Hrdlicka in the invitation but a spokeswoman said she had planned to attend and was personally disappointed with the turn of events.

Originally scheduled for late May, the event was postponed to July following high levels of flu and Covid-19 in the community.

A Virgin spokeswoman said the decision was made to again postpone the event following the advice from the chief medical officer on Tuesday.

“We have a shared responsibility in protecting our people, the tourism industry and the broader community from the impacts of Covid-19 and we feel this is the right decision in the current environment,” said the spokeswoman.

“We are extremely disappointed that we can’t be with you in person this Friday to acknowledge all that we have achieved with our team and the wider tourism industry over our 18-month long transformation journey.”

She said the Virgin executive team and board “sent their apologies”.

“We are looking forward to meeting face-to-face in the future and we will endeavour to make alternative plans when the time is right,” the spokeswoman said.

It was understood a decision had previously been made not to make any new announcements at the hangar event despite the invitation’s promise to unveil “something truly wonderful”.

After a strong start to the year, Virgin has struggled in recent months, with as many as one in five flights cancelled out of Sydney Airport on Sunday, as school holidays came to an end.

High levels of staff sickness have been blamed for the cancellations prompting Virgin to reduce its flying schedule for the rest of the month.

In an email to staff, Ms Hrdlicka said there had been “unprecedented levels of team member sickness” and she thanked those who had picked up extra duties as a result.

“I also want to call out and thank the nearly 200 head office volunteers who happily put their hands up to muck in on the frontline during the busy school holiday period,” she wrote.

Ms Hrdlicka also assured staff that despite being overseas in her capacity as chair of Tennis Australia she was “still actively working and involved in the day to day of the Virgin Australia business”.

Her spokespeople had previously refused to reveal her whereabouts, but photographs from Wimbledon showed Ms Hrdlicka seated just behind the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. She is understood to have now returned to Australia.