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Virgin publishes full-page newspaper ad in push for bailout

written by Adam Thorn | April 6, 2020

A Qantas A380 and Virgin Australia A330 at YMML (Victor Pody)

Virgin Australia ramped up its lobbying for a bailout by placing a full-page advert in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph warning of the dangers of a Qantas monopoly.

In an apparent swipe at its biggest rival, the text states, “Our biggest competitors need a challenger to keep them honest and innovative. A monopoly won’t even work for them.”

The Virgin Australia Group is currently seeking a $1.4 billion loan from the government to help it survive during the coronavirus crisis, but has also become embroiled in a tit-for-tat row with Qantas, which is lobbying to prevent it.

The advert is headlined, “A monopoly in Australian skies will be good for no one”, while the text reads, “Not the 25 million people who fly with Virgin Australia, who have seen a 37% reduction in airfares over the 20 years we’ve been operating.

“Not our 10,000 incredible people. Not our 4,000 loyal partners.

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“Not the Australian economy, to which this airline adds 11 billion dollars a year. Or the 600,000 people who work in tourism.

“Our biggest competitors need a challenger to keep them honest and innovative. A monopoly won’t even work for them. It’s as clear as the blue sky.

“A competitive airline industry is good for every one of us, and will be an essential part of economic recovery. Let’s keep the air fair.”

On Friday, Australian Aviation reported comments from Virgin’s chief executive Paul Scurrah stating he was confident the airline could secure a bailout despite the Prime Minister playing down its chances.

When confronted with questions suggesting the country won’t hand the business a proposed $1.4 billion loan, Scurrah said, “That certainly hasn’t been the message we’ve been getting from the government. We’re continuing to work on that package.”

Earlier, the Prime Minister told reporters aid would only happen on a “sector-wide basis”.

Click to enlarge: Virgin Australia took out this press advert in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Virgin and Qantas remain at loggerheads, with the latter claiming any government help must be spread fairly among the two airline groups.

Scurrah has even formally complained to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) about Qantas’ campaign.

Speaking to Sky News last month, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said, “It would be completely unfair to our sector. We’d be competing against the Australian government. Qantas couldn’t do that, it would be an unbalanced, uncompetitive environment.

“The government can’t pick winners and losers, the government has to be fair to every company. Whatever aid it’s giving to one company it must give to everyone in the sector.”

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Comments (10)

  • Lucas

    says:

    waste of money they don’t have!!

  • Freddie

    says:

    It was a different case for Qantas when they were backed by the Government ‘back in the day’. A two airline operation for Australia is the very least the travelling public would/should expect.

  • Craigy

    says:

    Well what is it Paul, a bail out or a loan? Seems Virgin are in worse financial shape then has been previously stated if its a bail out.

  • Dave

    says:

    isn’t the government paying the wages of stood down staff already? Havent fuel and landing costs been reduced to 10% of what they were?
    I think this is a cash grab for much more money then they need. Sure the gov’t should pay enough to keep them in the same financial position through the downturn, but any more than that is not appropriate.

  • Paul

    says:

    The majority shareholders of VOZ are not Australian. Surely those shareholders should be tapped first and lastly the Australian taxpayer.

    • Mish

      says:

      FOREIGN OWN COMPANIES EMPLOYED MILLIONS OF AUSTRALIANS WHO PAY THERE TAXS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRALIA. WITH OUT THESE COMPANIES HERE MILLIONS MORE WOULD BE ON CENTRELINK.

      A FEW ICONIC AUSTRALIAN BRANDS OWNED BY FOREIGN COMPANY.

      ARNOTTS BISCUITS= KKR USA
      VB AND CARTLON =ABinBEV BELGIUM
      XXXXBEER TOOHEY AN HANH= KIRIN JAPAN
      DVID JONES= WOOLWORTHS HOLDINGS South Africa
      VEGEMITE= KRAFTS USA
      OPTUS=SINGTEL SINGAPORE
      HUNGRY JACKS= USA
      TOLLS= JAPAN
      SPEEDOS= Pentland Group UK
      RM WILLIAMS= L CAPITALS ASIA
      BILLABONG = USA
      UNCLE TOBYS= USA

      AND NOT TO MENTIONS THE LANDS, MINING, ENERGIES, FISHERIES , FARM AND PROPERTIES THAT ARE OWNED BY FOEIGN COMPANIES.

  • AJ doesn’t seem to be able to relate to what Sir Reginald Ansett achieved over decades. Who does he think owned TAA??

  • Philip Bowes

    says:

    VOZ is a company mainly owned by overseas investors and has been very poorly run and making large losses in each of the last ten years.
    It is frightening to think of only having QF in the market s they would rip us all off but there is no way that VOZ should get even a single dollar from the taxpayer.

  • Rocket

    says:

    Ok, despite how anyone feels about this, Virgin need to get some sort of coherent messaging and professional communications. In the last week alone we’ve had the following:
    1) VA complains that Qantas is casting untrue assertions over its liquidity. Denies it needs a bail out.
    2) Makes redundant ALL Tigerair Pilots, 1000 of them, despite having said it has cash to survive. This also when the government had announced it will cover $1500 of wages per fortnight.
    3) After complaining to the ACCC about Qantas, VA then signals the opposite of what it said in response to the QF accusation and signals it now DOES need a bail out and asks for $1.4Bn.
    4) After insisting it has cash, then making 1000 people redundant, then crying poor and saying it does need money (meaning QF was right), it then spends goodness knows how many thousands or millions on full page colour newspaper ads…
    At the very least, no one knows what’s going on at VA, least of all it’s senior management, at worst they are just swinging like a pendulum from one story to another and to buy full page, self-promoting ads isn’t exactly sending the signal you’re down to your last dollar.

    At the very least, they’ve sent a terrible message to the government, if I was in the Cabinet, I’d be asking “How can you be that short of money but afford to spend lots of cash on full page ads?

    It certainly seems to indicate that despite protests to the contrary, management hasn’t really improved at VA at all and they are still devoid of any idea what they’re doing.

  • James B

    says:

    A badly run business puts a gun to Australian tax payers head and says give us cash or you will suffer

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