Australia, with over 2,200 flights per week to twenty-two domestic destinations. It has expanded into New Zealand as Pacific Blue, it flies in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji as Polynesian Blue, and is planning to fly to the United States as V Australia.
In under ten years we have built an airline that Australians, New Zealanders and Polynesian islanders really seem to love, and there's an infectious spirit every time I step on board one of our planes.
Virgin Blue was the brainchild of Australian Brett Godfrey, whose dad worked for Qantas, and Rob Sherrard (who set up Sherrard Aviation and gave Brett his first job as an accountant). They jotted their idea on the back of some beer mats in 1993. Brett had walked around with this stack of cardboard in his back pocket for several years before he approached me. It's strange that some of the best ideas in life emerge after some liquid lubrication!
Brett first came to my attention when he wrote a brilliant reply to an article that was hostile to our European carrier, Virgin Express. It encapsulated my thoughts exactly, and stuck in my mind for a long time.
By 1999, Brett was Virgin Express's chief financial officer. We'd gone through three CEOs, and Brett had been acting chief operating officer, so by now he knew all the snags and problems of the airline business up close. He was incredibly hard-working, and had a great way of getting along with people. His force of personality had smoothed over some sticky situations.
So, one Thursday evening, I phoned Brett to offer him the job as head of Virgin Express, staying on in Brussels. He was polite, but turned me down. He said he wanted to quit because he now had two young children, Ryan and Nicholas, with his wife, Zahra, and wanted to return to Australia.
I said: 'If you want to do anything in Australia let me know and we'll see what we can do.'
'Funny you should say that,' was his reply. And he proceeded to tell me about his plan for a low-cost airline in Australia.
'Well, why don't you put a plan together? I'll have a look at it,' I said.
Brett went home that evening, dusted down his proposal, and got one of his colleagues to fly to Oxford next morning to deliver the plan. I read it and phoned him the next evening. Brett's idea had already been rejected by the Virgin executive team in London. But I believed there was value in this case. He told me I was the first person who shared his vision and that he had almost given up on his idea. I asked him to look at five outstanding issues and then get back to me. My questions were about slots, good aeroplanes, terminals, ticketing and staff and pilots. Brett went off to Australia and returned within a week with all the answers nailed down. After speaking with our team I said: 'Screw it, let's do it.'
There was a handshake. I said I would give him A$10 million, and the next day it was deposited into his bank account. (His bank manager phoned him up, thinking it was a mistake!)
Brett had already garnered support from Queensland's government, led by Peter Beattie, which would help with the marketing of this untapped tourist region. This was a great stroke of luck – all of the regional capitals in Australia were keen for a new airline to be based in their states, but Brisbane, along with Perth, was the fastest growing part of Australia, with the Sunshine Coast a huge attraction. The payroll tax was better than elsewhere, and so too were the beaches. When we launched we had 12,000 CVs from people all wanting to relocate to Queensland!
When the American low-cost carrier JetBlue was set up, it had a budget of $120 million. Brett's budget of A$10 million was extremely tight, but he had done his homework. He knew that Compass, Australia's first budget airline, which was under-capitalised, collapsed and died in December 1991, squeezed out by Ansett and Qantas in a price war. Compass boss Bryan Gray gave us an indication of what to do – and where it all went wrong. We didn't need to repeat his
In under ten years we have built an airline that Australians, New Zealanders and Polynesian islanders really seem to love, and there's an infectious spirit every time I step on board one of our planes.
Virgin Blue was the brainchild of Australian Brett Godfrey, whose dad worked for Qantas, and Rob Sherrard (who set up Sherrard Aviation and gave Brett his first job as an accountant). They jotted their idea on the back of some beer mats in 1993. Brett had walked around with this stack of cardboard in his back pocket for several years before he approached me. It's strange that some of the best ideas in life emerge after some liquid lubrication!
Brett first came to my attention when he wrote a brilliant reply to an article that was hostile to our European carrier, Virgin Express. It encapsulated my thoughts exactly, and stuck in my mind for a long time.
By 1999, Brett was Virgin Express's chief financial officer. We'd gone through three CEOs, and Brett had been acting chief operating officer, so by now he knew all the snags and problems of the airline business up close. He was incredibly hard-working, and had a great way of getting along with people. His force of personality had smoothed over some sticky situations.
So, one Thursday evening, I phoned Brett to offer him the job as head of Virgin Express, staying on in Brussels. He was polite, but turned me down. He said he wanted to quit because he now had two young children, Ryan and Nicholas, with his wife, Zahra, and wanted to return to Australia.
I said: 'If you want to do anything in Australia let me know and we'll see what we can do.'
'Funny you should say that,' was his reply. And he proceeded to tell me about his plan for a low-cost airline in Australia.
'Well, why don't you put a plan together? I'll have a look at it,' I said.
Brett went home that evening, dusted down his proposal, and got one of his colleagues to fly to Oxford next morning to deliver the plan. I read it and phoned him the next evening. Brett's idea had already been rejected by the Virgin executive team in London. But I believed there was value in this case. He told me I was the first person who shared his vision and that he had almost given up on his idea. I asked him to look at five outstanding issues and then get back to me. My questions were about slots, good aeroplanes, terminals, ticketing and staff and pilots. Brett went off to Australia and returned within a week with all the answers nailed down. After speaking with our team I said: 'Screw it, let's do it.'
There was a handshake. I said I would give him A$10 million, and the next day it was deposited into his bank account. (His bank manager phoned him up, thinking it was a mistake!)
Brett had already garnered support from Queensland's government, led by Peter Beattie, which would help with the marketing of this untapped tourist region. This was a great stroke of luck – all of the regional capitals in Australia were keen for a new airline to be based in their states, but Brisbane, along with Perth, was the fastest growing part of Australia, with the Sunshine Coast a huge attraction. The payroll tax was better than elsewhere, and so too were the beaches. When we launched we had 12,000 CVs from people all wanting to relocate to Queensland!
When the American low-cost carrier JetBlue was set up, it had a budget of $120 million. Brett's budget of A$10 million was extremely tight, but he had done his homework. He knew that Compass, Australia's first budget airline, which was under-capitalised, collapsed and died in December 1991, squeezed out by Ansett and Qantas in a price war. Compass boss Bryan Gray gave us an indication of what to do – and where it all went wrong. We didn't need to repeat his
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