Business Don't miss out on the headlines from Business. Followed categories will be added to My News. When Covid lockdowns hit and borders slammed shut, Jayne Hrdlicka needed a favour.
Her two teenage sons were stranded in Europe and she was desperate for them to return home. Calling on her contacts in the aviation industry, Hrdlicka received an introduction to Akbar Al Baker at Qatar Airways – one of the few carriers still operating regular flights to Australia. Her request for help was granted and her boys were delivered safely home, marking the start of what would become a close association with Qatar when Hrdlicka took the reins of Virgin Australia at the end of 2020.
Just 18 months later, Virgin and Qatar had become codeshare partners, meaning the airlines could sell tickets on each other’s flights. Shortly after Al Baker raised eyebrows when he told an International Air Transport Association summit Virgin was not his first choice of airline partner in Australia – but he had given up waiting for Qantas. “We tried to do work with Qantas for a very long time and we realised that it’s not going to happen because they have partnered with somebody (Emirates),” Al Baker said in June 2022.
The remark revealed as much about his regard for Virgin as it did about his frustration with Qantas, which would only deepen in the year to come. Fortunately for Virgin, Al Baker was replaced as CEO last year by the more progressive and diplomatic Badr Mohammed Al Meer. But the ba.