Alaska appoints leadership team after Virgin America acquisition
Peter Hunt, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Virgin America, will be promoted to president of the carrier once it has been acquired by Alaska Air Group.
The deal, expected to be complete early in the fourth quarter of this year, will also see Ben Minicucci, CEO and president of Alaska Airlines,
become CEO of Virgin America.
Hunt, pictured here, will be responsible for leading all aspects of the airline’s operations until the FAA grants Alaska a single operating certificate, expected in early 2018.
He will report to Minicucci.
The $4 billion deal will create the fifth largest airline in the US.
It means Seattle-based Alaska Air will be able to expand into slot-controlled East Coast airports like Washington and New York’s JFK and LaGuardia.
Together, the combined airline will have 1,200 daily departures, with hubs in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Anchorage, Alaska, and Portland, Oregon.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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