Tennis Australia has a plan to keep the Australian Open safe, but who will benefit? Plus more tips and murmurs from the Crikey bunker.
Taking flight Chartered flights for players is all part of a grand plan by Tennis Australia to COVID-proof the Australian Open so it can go ahead in January. But the sporting body has been light on the details. For example, which airline will land the well-paying job?
The thought of finding a few spare jumbo jets to fly tennis pros in from around the globe seems like a daunting task. But perhaps not if you’re Tennis Australia president and newly-minted Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka. Since landing at Virgin — which went into administration during the pandemic — the former Jetstar boss has no doubt become acquainted with a few out-of-work pilots desperate to get back in the air.
Crikey asked Tennis Australia if it had made any arrangements with Virgin Australia for the lucrative gig, or whether it would rule out using Virgin to avoid a conflict of interest, but we haven’t heard back.
