Virgin seeks to create local jobs

AAP-May,20-Virgin Australia is seeking to bring some offshore operations back to Australia that would involve the creation of hundreds of new jobs, chief executive John Borghetti says.
Mr Borghetti says the word "Australia" in the Virgin Australia airline name comes with a duty to undertake as many activities as possible locally.
He told a business lunch in Sydney given the "multiplier effect", every 100 jobs created in the aviation industry generated 610 other jobs in other parts of the economy.
"Not only does the rebranding tap into the huge power of the Virgin brand around the world, but it allows us to tap into the very powerful Australia brand," Mr Borghetti said in his speech.
"As an Australian airline we aim, and indeed believe we have a duty to undertake, as many of our activities as possible in Australia."
The carrier announced in February plans to open a maintenance hangar facility at Sydney Airport, which would create about 300 jobs.
The push to bring jobs back to Australia comes amid reports national carrier Qantas Airways Ltd was looking to establish a new full-service premium airline based in Asia, with Malaysia or Singapore touted as possible locations.
Unions have also highlighted the Flying Kangaroo's growing offshore operations, from Jetstar Asia to New Zealand subsidiary Jetconnect, during ongoing enterprise bargaining agreements.
Mr Borghetti said on Friday that despite Virgin's aim to capture about 20 per cent of the corporate travel market, the airline group was still focused on more price-sensitive leisure passengers.
"This argument of share, this sort of chest-beating about share, is totally irrelevant," Mr Borghetti told reporters after the lunch.
"What is relevant is the return that you make and we have been very clear time and time again we don't have a line in the sand, we don't believe in a line in the sand."
The comment referred to Qantas's goal of maintaining a combined 65 per cent share of the domestic market across its Jetstar and Qantas mainline operations.
Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) data showed Virgin achieved 80.2 per cent on time departures and 79.7 per cent on time arrives in April, up from 76.4 per cent and 74 per cent, respectively, the previous month.
Mr Borghetti said the airline group had a renewed focus on punctuality, having seen its on-time performance slip earlier this year.
"We will have industry leading performance by the end of this year," Mr Borghetti said.
The BITRE report defined on time as a flight that reaches or pulls back from the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled departure or arrival time.
While global oil prices had come down a little in recent times, Mr Borghetti said Virgin's fuel surcharges needed to remain in place.
Virgin closed down half a cent at 30 cents.