Virgin Australia CEO and managing director Paul Scurrah made the announcement yesterday that the airline has taken the decision to ground its international fleet between 30 March and 14 June 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The airline is also cutting domestic capacity by 50 per cent until 14 June 2020. In total, 53 aircraft will be grounded and, Scurrah said, 10,500 staff will be asked to take accrued leave or leave without pay while some may be redeployed.
“We have entered an unprecedented time in the global aviation industry.
“The saddest part about this is there will be impacts on our people.”
While presenting a cautiously optimistic overview of the future of Virgin Australia, Scurrah did acknowledge that the global aviation industry was hurting and that while the Government’s $715 million stimulus was welcome,”… whether it is enough or not, it is too early to tell”.
“I don’t have a crystal ball about how long this will go for.”
