Hanson urges goodwill to Virgin shareholders and ticketholders
MEDIA RELEASE
Queensland senator Pauline Hanson has asked the new owners of Virgin Airlines for goodwill for thousands of everyday shareholders who fear losing their investments in the airline.
USA-based investor Bain Capital is in the process of finalising its purchase of the bankrupt airline, so the One Nation leader wrote to the company to ask that it look after existing “mum and dad” shareholders who face “a total loss of their investment in Virgin Australia”.
“I would hope that Bain Capital takes its corporate responsibility approach to protect those vulnerable investors in the same manner they approach the bond holders with the capital and legal backing to ensure their investments are protected,” Senator Hanson wrote to the company’s Managing Director, Michael Murphy.
“One must take into account it is that large number of shareholders that will be the clientele of Virgin in the future.”
She noted that some investors “could be losing either a partial or wholly percentage loss of their retirement capital”.
Senator Hanson is also asking Bain Capital to provide refunds for international flight tickets that became unusable due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.
She noted in her letter that the company planned to scale back to a domestic-only carrier and that the Government had banned international flights from Australia – both events out of the control of ticket holders.
“…those travellers that have pre purchased their international flights cannot take those flights irrespective of the cause…. Therefore, Virgin Australia cannot honour those booked and paid for flights,” Senator Hanson wrote.
The One Nation leader added that taking such positive action for those at risk would “place Bain Capital in a very favourable position in its standing in the Australian community”.
Media reports suggest Virgin Airlines had received 340,000 requests for ticket refunds.
