Jayne Hrdlicka to focus on tennis as she eyes life after Virgin Australia

Jayne Hrdlicka remains the Virgin Australia boss but the clock is now ticking on how long she will stay in the role.

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka.

For the first time in a long time, Jayne Hrdlicka sounds relaxed.

The Virgin Australia chief executive has just clinched what may be the deal of her lifetime – selling a 25 per cent stake in the airline to Qatar Airways.

It’s certainly the one she’s most “excited” will bring better competition to the aviation market because it will give Virgin more capital to take on dominant Qantas, which is making money hand over fist.

The sale also means Hrdlicka can finally leave Virgin.

Her departure had been announced eight months ago, but the process of locking in her replacement was muddied by the Qatar takeover talks, secretly codenamed Project Doubles.

As part of the deal Qatar will be offered two seats on the board of Virgin, and it clearly wanted a voice on choosing who will next sit in the cockpit.

Now the 63-year-old chief executive can focus on her other great passion – tennis. Hrdlicka is chairwoman of Tennis Australia, has a US college tennis scholarship-level son, and will now end her executive career to focus on her love of the racquet.

“Tennis is a passion,” Hrdlicka tells The Australian. “Helping tennis globally get to the most resilient and successful place it can be is really important to me.”

Tennis Australia certainly has bounced back post the tumultuous Covid-19 years under her and Craig Tiley’s reign.

At the end of last year the not-for-profit produced a record $19m surplus, up from $4m a year earlier and an impressive turnaround from the $100m in combined losses in 2020 and 2021 through the height of the Covid pandemic.

Tennis Australia hosts the Australian Open, which is described by many top players as their favourite – although probably not Novak Djokovic, who was kicked out of the country in a populist move by then prime minister Scott Morrison in 2022 for not vaccinating.

“We’re headed into a really important year in 2025 and it’s exciting,” Hrdlicka says. “It’s a great opportunity to give back to the community in a different way … and because I am the chair of one of the four Grand Slams and on the Grand Slam board there is a global side to my role.”

Virgin, too, has performed under Hrdlicka.

Last year the airline posted its first profit in a decade and soon is likely to reveal a second consecutive profit for the 23-24 financial year.

And now it also has a global role. This deal gives Australia’s second biggest airline access to one of the biggest and best carriers in the world. Once the deal is completed, Virgin travellers will be able to seamlessly access the highly awarded Qatar network, which spans across Europe and beyond.

The deal is bad news for Qantas. The Flying Kangaroo is going to take a hit to yields on European flights and needs its ultra long-haul Project Sunrise strategy to work. Qantas is betting by offering non-stop flights from eastern Australia to cities such as London, New York – due to start in about 12 months – it will have a competitive advantage over more luxurious airlines such as Qatar.

Qantas has just announced its two biggest profits on record and is making excellent money off domestic and international travel.

But its international unit is sometimes a loss-maker and former chief executive Alan Joyce even considered hiving off the business off about a decade ago.

It can be difficult for commercial carriers to compete with state-owned airlines such Qatar, which can pour more money into product because they pay less for fuel and for staff. To be sure, this is also the case with Qantas’s profit-sharing partner Emirates.

Hrdlicka says Virgin and Qatar started talks about a bigger tie-up in 2022 when they first announced a codeshare.

“This is just the national progression of that,” says Hrdlicka. “We’ve demonstrated to our partner, Qatar, what a great airline we are and how much we have in the tank in terms of opportunity for both earnings growth as well as just growing the market and going after our opportunities.”

Hrdlicka and her team had been working hard towards an initial public offering of Virgin shares but global equity markets for new stock shut down during volatile market conditions.

The chief executive says Bain Capital, which bought the airline from administration in 2020, will likely still be looking to list the airline with Qatar as a cornerstone investor.

“Qatar coming in is a strategic … long-term investment,” says Hrdlicka. “I would expect down the track at some point when … the financial markets are conducive to it, that we will relist and we’ll be back on the ASX, but that’s a matter for our shareholders in terms of timing.”

This deal provides a great closure for Hrdlicka, who was parachuted into the role by Bain against the wishes of staff. The former Jetstar chief stripped out costs and won their respect by making the airline profitable, before hitting speed bumps as frontline staff pushed for their share of the increased earnings.

This week she thanked them.

“This is the most exciting deal I’ve ever done,” Hrdlicka says.

“This is so good for competition domestically in Australia because (Qatar) brings us scale and strategic relevance that enables us to compete.

“It means that we can provide more value, better choice and access to the world’s best international network. I’m just incredibly proud of our team.”