The effort and expertise invested by Cyrus and its advisers over a very compressed time period, including the close personal involvement of Cyrus’ founder and chief investment officer, Stephen Freidheim, demonstrates how committed Cyrus is – and remains – to playing a lead role in the future of Virgin Australia.
Cyrus knows what it takes to grow a successful Virgin airline. With a 20-year history of investing in airlines, and its deep understanding of the Virgin culture from twelve years as the controlling shareholder of award-winning US airline Virgin America, Cyrus firmly believes it is the best-qualified party to take Virgin Australia forward to great success – to the benefit of employees, customers, Velocity frequent flyer members and other stakeholders. These qualifications are bolstered by the involvement of former Virgin Group North America CEO Jonathan Peachey as a senior adviser to Cyrus.
Working closely with Virgin Australia’s management and other stakeholders culminated in a strong vision and business plan that was overwhelmingly supported by the unions representing the collective heart and soul of Virgin Australia – its employees.
In fact, every major group with a vested stake in Virgin Australia’s future – employees, their union representatives and Virgin Australia management – support Cyrus due to the shared vision, compatibility of working styles and mutual respect earned during our intensive engagement over the past few weeks.
Cyrus also believes that its business plan, developed on a bottom-up (plane-by-plane and route-by-route) basis with management, best positions Virgin Australia to return to strength during these difficult times. It has been widely reported that after this plan was unveiled two weeks ago, it has been largely adopted by all other potential bidders as well.
