McCormack statement on Virgin Australia

Today it has been formally announced the board of Virgin Australia has chosen to put the company into voluntary administration.

This is a particularly difficult time for its staff, its suppliers and the aviation sector more broadly.

The Australian Government has and will continue to support the industry through our various initiatives which to date have seen more than $1.2 billion committed to maintaining operations across the sector and supporting jobs.

This investment comes on top of the $130 billion JobKeeper package, which continues to be available to Virgin employees at this time.

The Government remains committed to two commercially viable airlines operating domestically across Australia. This is important for competition and the Australian economy. We will ensure the ACCC strongly enforces competition laws so airlines are able to compete effectively as the industry rebuilds.

In light of Virgin Australia’s announcement today, the Government has appointed Mr Nicholas Moore, former Macquarie Group CEO, to lead our engagement with the administrator. The Government’s preference continues to be for a market-led solution.

We will engage constructively with Virgin Australia’s administrator to ensure Australia maintains two commercially viable airlines.

Our objective is to help keep as many employees as possible in their jobs, a second major domestic airline in the sky, prices down and competition maintained so our economy recovers strongly on the other side of the coronavirus pandemic.

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