Despite gruelling court cases in two countries, threats of jail time, being convicted of contempt of court and slapped with a $25,000 fine, Nick Rohrlach doesn’t regret defecting from Qantas to Virgin two years ago.
“There’s no pressure but there are a lot of expectations,” he says. Velocity celebrates reaching 11 million members this weekend with 20 to 30 thousand members joining every week.Hrdlicka had to ring a couple of times before getting through to Rohrlach to offer him the job in late 2020. He’d been skiing in Japan, one of the many perks of his former role as the country’s Jetstar boss. When they finally connected a week or so later, there was just one problem.
“Last year was a crazy year for everyone. I had my own thing, but everyone had their own thing with the pandemic last year. It’s a year no one will forget for various reasons,” he said.Rohrlach’s husband, Terry, says the decision to accept the Virgin role was not an easy one. Nor was seeing the countless headlines during the airline tug-a-war. “He really wanted it but respected me a lot in the process and knew it would uproot our lives. We make these decisions together.
Hrdlicka says she’s never regretted choosing Rohrlach to head up Velocity, “I needed a leader who understood aviation and could reimagine what a great loyalty business looks like.”Virgin was plucked out of administration by US private equity Bain Capital in 2020. Rohrlach watched it unfold from Qantas, where he was running Jetstar Japan. Aviation is a notoriously siloed industry with little movement between airlines.
Like other airlines around the world, it has struggled to cope with the rampant demand for travel due to staff shortages, increased cost of fuel and supply-chain issues since emerging from COVID-19 induced border closures.according to government BITRE data.More than one third of Virgin flights were delayed in October and the number of cancellations doubled on the month prior due to staff sickness, single runway restrictions at Sydney Airport and a bout of bad weather.