John Borghetti: why Virgin Australia "had to attack Qantas"

That huge debt will be a huge part of his legacy. Resentment about not getting the Qantas CEO position probably motivated him to attack Qantas with huge consequences.

Ego and pride has led to VA's demise. John Borghetti was always arrogant with small man syndrome and didn't have the smarts to know where to draw the line.

I'm not surprised he declined to appear on the program and just released a statement. His approach led Virgin Australia to the precipice and unfortunately Covid tipped it over. Virgin never had the capability to take on Qantas and all Borghetti cared about was trying to make a Qantas MkII. He basically ruined them with poor decisions on routes, aircrafts and surrounded himself with admirers on the board. Want to know why they were $7b in debt? He is the reason.

Not surprising that JB didn't "have the guts" to face the music as his other lieutanants in an interview, instead chosing to 'release a statement'

Borghetti was the James Hogan of VA, sadly.

It might not be fair from Virgin Australia chair Elizabeth Bryan to put a blame solely to former CEO John Borghetti. It took Ms Bryan only 4 years to realise company is heading into wrong direction!? The desire to be like Qantas must had been likewise compelling to the Board.

At the end it is the responsibility of the Board to provide strategic direction of the organisation and for delivering accountable corporate performance.

"Virgin had found itself placed in the middle between Jetstar and Qantas"

So Bain is essentially taking VA back to where it was. Has that market niche magically appeared all of a sudden?

The board are equally, if not more so, complicit in VA demise. Why did they wait so long to make that "change?" . The bank balance alone should have told them that. Anyhow...watch this space. MK II ghosts will definitely be lurking

Most European and North American Airlines have going down a cost plus approach - the basic airfares get you a seat and you need to pay for everything else. So John Borghetti has been running quite contrary to international trend. It is most likely the corporate travel budgets will be slashed in the next few years as the economy struggles after COVID 19 and people becoming used to virtual meetings. So Virgin Mark 2 is probably the right way to go and the question is whether Qantas will need to go down the same route.

I actually think the Four Corners episode showing the chairperson going on the attack was pretty pathetic, watching the body language gave a different light to the interview. Whether VA was cashed up or not they would have had a similar out come and hopefully Qantas doesn't have a similar outcome. Every company should have been treated equally, if it was the private sector we would have been done for insider trading with the extra support one airline got.

STOP .. Why is it in Australia that the media and other high ranking industry leaders don't tell things as it is .. John Borghetti's role is to manage the company so it doesn't fall over. He failed to do this. So whatever comes out of his mouth, he is accountable!!!!! Whatever his mantra, it means nothing and to the shareholders, you deserve what you got. Shareholders and the Board are all guilty of failing and the Virus (or Trump just for those in the room who might feel left out) has NOTHING to do with it. So full of excuses ... so careful not to ruffle feathers ... all too scared to stand up and challenge ... Air NZ did and whose laughing at them now? Air NZ weren't going to be lead by another Australian Qantas Ego-head down a big black hole again ... Airline (Ansett) collapse No 2. John Borghetti should be held accountable for the average corporate man he was ... A brighter executive would have embedded Virgin with Star Alliance years ago and would have worked a deal to ensure Star Alliance carriers owned 50.1% control and the others would have come. But John was protecting his job, not the airline. Self centered fool and I am not trying to be cruel. The Board should dip their heads in shame too. What a waste of money all of this is ... Just like Masters which again was built on ego. John, you're guilty!!!!

Virgin Australia did not have to attack Qantas. Virgin was then profitable, and operating in a duopoly and only the ego and arrogance of it's CEO took in down the path of ruin. Think of all the people this arrogance has impacted in a negative fashion. Their CEO left the company after being remunerated millions of dollars so there is no real consequence for such a reckless approach. No wonder he was overlooked for the Qantas CEO role. The Qantas board had been exposed to him for years and chose to not give him the job, but he desperately tried to prove them wrong. The whole sorry waste of money and people was indeed a very personal battle.

Of course there is a market between JQ and QF.

Wouldn't it be great to book a reliable airline that has a simple fare that includes a seat, one bag and seat selection without add ons and bull dust and takes care of its passengers if the flight is cancelled.

A <2hr flight does not need food and beverage, doctors have proved you will actually live if not fed every hours or so.

Simple, reliable and customer friendly for the golden triangle at least will suit any non “bare bones” traveller who is looking for value for money.

Rex survives and thrives deliberately not trying to be QF or JQ and has virtually no debt.

I emailed JB in 2016, when VA were about to undertake their most recent $1 billion reset. I said to him that he could use my Australia International Airlines plan if he wanted to, but he said, "too late, Steve, the Board had already decided upon a plan of action. "

So, by 2016, the totally dysfunctional VA Board were making the decisions, so for ms Ryan to blame JB, was just to use him as a convenient scapegoat for the Board.

Let's not forget that SIA wouldn't let VA compete against them for the business in Asia. Etihad didn't want them going to Europe, and Air NZ only wanted them to feed people to them for the US market via their Auckland hub.

The higher services level domestically was more to satisfy the needs of the disparate airline shareholders requirements, than anything else.

And anyone who says that AJ has done a stellar job at QF, has simply been asleep for the last 12 years. Wake up and actually look at the facts instead of only reading what the QF spin doctors tell you.

AJ took over QF late in 2008. It had just made a $1.4 billion profit and paid shareholders a 35 cps fully Franked dividend. Within 12 months he had that down by 87% to $181 million. A small interim dividend was paid in 2009, but shareholders got zero dividends for the next 7 years after that. Who would want to be a QF shareholder?

By 2014, we had the Senate Qantas Inquiry. Why? Because AJ had just about sent QF down the gurgler. He blamed everyone for the QF woes. The unions, the staff, the competition, the Qantas Sale Act, the crappy planes that he inherited, the high cost of oil, the end-of-line theory, the Federal government, the GFC, the previous QF management , to name just a few things. After all, he wasn't to blame because he had only been CEO for just over 5 years.

And almost tearfully he stood in front of the Inquiry and said that he has a plan. A turnaround plan.

But if you look at the 2009 Annual Report, he had already implemented a Transformation Plan. What ever happened to that plan?

What Was going to be different this time around? So, in 2014, QF took a loss of just over $600 million and bundled a further $2.2 billion of accelerated depreciation or write downs into it, to put all of the bad news into one year, and to make the turnaround seem like that much more when it comes.

So, in the 2015 Annual Report, AJ waxes lyrically about the amazing $1200 million that his wonderful Transformation Plan has delivered in just one year.

So, how did the amazing transformation actually come about? Not because of him, that's for sure.

Over $600 million was from the price of oil dropping to $US40.70. More than half a billion was from selling the family silver, the QF SYD terminal facilities. $120 million was from the change to carbon credits. And nearly $300 million was as a result of decreasing depreciation because of the $2.2 billion write down in 2014.

And, he put 5,000 QF staff on the dole queue at the same time remember.

So, how many cps did QF shareholders get rewarded with as a result, in 2015? Zero cps! And how much did AJ get rewarded with in 2015? $11.9 million. So how come he didn't have to make up his losses before he could start making bonuses?

In fact, QF shareholders have only been paid an average of 8 cps per annum in the entire time that AJ has been CEO. And in the same period he has averaged $8 million per annum for himself. 8 cps average pa for the owners of the airline versus $8 million pa for AJ! Sounds fair, doesn't it?

So, QF has been asset-stripped, asset-aged, and 11,000 valuable staff have been sent to the Knacker's yard for parting-out. Who even noticed just recently that QF had disposed of its share in Jetstar Pacific. No big fanfare there, was there?

The CEO has publicly threatened, humiliated, and bashed around the ears, QF pilots. Take his offer or else he will bring in pilots from outside.

And his trusty sidekick GE did the same with Jetstar pilots. Take his deal or he said that he would sell the Jetstar B788's so that they didn't have a job any longer.

So, who sill thinks that QF is a well-run company, as AJ recently told the PM? They have received nearly a billion of taxpayer's money over the last few months to pay the bills.

Shareholders are used and abused, staff are publicly threatened and are a disposable item, customers have had to fly around in old dungers, because QF management took more than $3 billion of shareholders' cash out of the bank to buy back shares instead of getting new technology fuel-efficient in-demand aircraft. AJ has personally cancelled over 50 B787's on firm order during his time as CEO. Thousands of Australian jobs have not only been lost at QF recently, but also given away by AJ with his partnerships with Emirates and others.

I have tried many times in the past to get in front of the QF Board to tell them that there is actually a better future for QF instead of the one foisted upon them by AJ, but I can't get past his gate-keepers. In fact for more than 6 years now. But for some reason they are enchanted by him. Instead, what about looking after shareholders, after staff, the Customers, and Australia.