Virgin Australia eyes deeper co-operation with HNA

Virgin Australia is starting to look at revenue management and other opportunities with HNA Group as part of their alliance on China-Australia routes. “They’ve been working with us at an operational level. We’re deepening the conversation around revenue management,” says Virgin group executive Rob Sharp. HNA holds a 20% stake in the Australian carrier, which was initially acquired via an equity injection into Virgin in 2016, and subsequently maintained through a series of additional capital raisings. Last year Australia’s competition regulator cleared HNA and a number of its airline units to enter into an alliance with Virgin on Australia-China routes. That included Hong Kong Airlines and HK Express. Sharp says that the Hong Kong Airlines partnership in particular has been delivering strong feed for its Melbourne-Hong Kong flights. <br/>