Virgin holding off plan

Boss clarifies maligned idea for veterans

VIRGIN Australia chief John Borghetti says he has no regrets about the airline’s poorly received plan to give veterans priority boarding on flights.

Speaking after the group’s annual meeting yesterday, Mr Borghetti said the initiative, which was now on hold pending further consultation, had triggered a conversation Australia needed to have.

“I’m really pleased that this has opened up a broader conversation for us as a country in terms of what we should be doing for returned soldiers, whether it’s more recognition or more to assist with other issues,” Mr Borghetti said.

“I don’t think it’s bad to open up a discussion about that.”

There was never any intention to “salute” armed forces personnel as they walked on to aircraft, or to single out individuals in public announcements during a flight, he said.

“All this was going to do was give the ability for people who had a (veterans) card who wanted to use it completely anonymously effectively, to get in that (priority boarding) queue,” he said.

“It is not uncommon for us to make announcements when we have a special, relatively large group of people that are travelling somewhere.

“For example, when we carried volunteer firefighters, it would not be uncommon to say ‘welcome aboard and thank you for helping out Queensland’.

“Having said that, it is right for us to take a step back and say ‘OK, let’s relook at this’.”

There were no questions about the veterans’ priority boarding policy at the annual meeting, with shareholders instead criticising Elizabeth Bryan, who chairs the board, over the decision not to privatise the group.

Shareholder and investment manager Geoff Wilson said the performance of Virgin, which reported record revenue the past financial year, was not reflected in its share price of 21c.

Ms Bryan responded that it had been decided privatisation was not in the best interests of the business, despite its “unusual” shareholder structure.

Only 8.5 per cent of shares are held by small investors, with the remaining 91.5 per cent split between five large airlines and companies and Virgin founder Richard Branson.