New directions

Those qualities by themselves are rare and in combination almost unique, but they appear not to be enough for the new CEO and former Qantas GM John Borghetti.

After a round of sudden and almost ruthless dismissals, the staff at Virgin Blue headquarters are walking on eggshells instead of racing to the CEO’s office with new ideas.

Brett Godfrey’s era of innovation and inclusion has been replaced by silence and exclusion says one insider.

He told Contrails that there “are a lot of nervous people in the village at Bowen Hills. ” Already high profile Qantas executives have left to join Virgin Blue, and the word at Mascot is there are quite a few more lined up to follow.

There is no doubt that Borghetti was hired to steer Virgin Blue in a more corporate direction and to embrace business class, but there is no reason why the incumbent Virgin team could not have pulled that off. After all, they launched V Australia which is a great product.

When John Palmer took over as chairman of Air New Zealand in its darkest hour in 2001, he realised within two days the airline had great people and skills but lacked leadership and hope.

Ten years on under the inspirational leadership of first Ralph Norris and now Rob Fyfe, the airline is winning award after award culminating with Air Transport World’s Airline of the Year for 2010.

If Virgin Blue is to take on Qantas it needs to be united and inspired.

At every touch point Contrails has found Virgin Blue staff inspired, helpful and fun, and it seems incredible to think that these attributes could not be refocused to embrace the high end of town. In fact, the suits would love the zany approach coupled with a good Pinot or Sauvignon Blanc.

Throughout aviation history the sort of shakeup that appears to be happening at Virgin Blue has resulted in tears, not cheers.

An excellent case was Air New Zealand and Ansett in 2000 and 2001, with blood letting the order of the day combined with a dysfunctional board that was in constant turmoil.

Another was the takeover of Douglas Aircraft by Mc- Donnell Aircraft Company in 1967. McDonnell continued to interfere with what was the world’s premier aircraft builder at the time, culminating in the infamous Total Quality Management System (TQMS).

TQMS quickly became Time to Quit and Move to Seattle and was introduced in 1989 just when MDC was trying to bring its MD-11 and C-17 to first flight.

Instead of focusing on those critical goals, managers across the company were role playing to their subordinates to save their jobs.

The result was massive cost overruns on the C-17 and a critical nine month delay on the MD-11.

Of course we are all yet to see the results of Borghetti’s revolution at Virgin, but it appears to be a great shame that it could not have been an evolution.

There is no question that the airline must move upmarket away from its roots, but it would appear that Virgin Blue is in danger of losing the right stuff.

We sincerely hope not.

There “are a lot of nervous people in the village at Bowen Hills.”