Australia's second largest - and currently most profitable - airline has named a former senior Qantas executive to take over from outgoing CEO Brett Godfrey.

John Borghetti, who was overlooked for the CEO role of Qantas, Australia's national carrier, last year was Tuesday named CEO of Virgin Blue Holdings, including Virgin Blue, Pacific Blue and new international carrier V Australia.

He will take over the top role in May and spend the interim period familiarising himself with operations working alongside Godfrey.

The appointment has the endorsement of Virgin's founder Sir Richard Branson who said he was "a great admirer" of Borghetti.

"I'm absolutely delighted to have someone of John's calibre join the Virgin family."

Borghetti joins Virgin Blue after 36 years in the aviation industry.

Until last year he effectively ran the Qantas operations and was favoured to take over from outgoing CEO Geoff Dixon. But Jetstar CEO Bruce Buchanan was anointed instead.

Borghetti said Tuesday Godfrey had left some "pretty big boots to fill".

"I'm honoured to have been given the opportunity to come on board.

"The company is well placed and well poised to go to the next stage of development."
He said he was attracted to the business because of its culture 10 months after leaving Qantas.

"The prospect of working for a company like Virgin Blue - it doesn't get any better than this."
At a press and analysts conference Borghetti declined to comment on his previous employer.

But he did concede that while at Qantas he'd watched Godfrey's progress "very carefully".

John Borghettit's biography

John Borghetti, 54, is a leader in the aviation sector with some 36 years experience in a wide range of senior roles at Qantas prior to leaving the company in May 2008.

Mr Borghetti, was Executive General Manager of Qantas over the six years before he left the group and was responsible for over $10bn in revenue per annum, up to 16,000 staff and assets including approximately 200 aircraft.

He headed domestic and international operations including network operations, scheduling and pricing, sales and marketing, crew, customer service, product and brand. These responsibilities covered all full-service airlines in the Qantas group, which in addition to Qantas mainline, also included Australia’s regional carrier QantasLink and Qantas’s New Zealand operation Jetconnect. During his tenure as Executive General Manager Qantas Airlines, the company achieved its highest reported profit of over $1.4bn.

Other achievements at Qantas include the development of a number of subsidiary businesses such as the company’s Holiday Travel operations in Australia and Asia; building its Frequent Flyer membership to over 5 million; and increasing Qantas’s Australian corporate travel business. He also played a key role in formulating the company’s two-brand strategy and the introduction of low cost operator, Jetstar. Furthermore, Mr Borghetti led the complete redefinition and upgrade of Qantas’s product, design and customer service models - an initiative which transformed the brand and received numerous awards for excellence.

Prior to 2003, Mr Borghetti headed the airline’s Global Sales and Marketing operations, including responsibility for the Qantas Holidays group of companies.

In his early career, he held a variety of positions in various commercial areas in the airline’s Melbourne office, moving to Sydney in 1988.

Mr Borghetti’s current directorships are with Care Australia, Piper Aircraft, The Australian Ballet and Investment Committee Member of Investec Global Aircraft Fund. He will be stepping down from the Piper Aircraft board and the Investec Global Aircraft Fund.

Mr Borghetti is married, with two adult children and currently lives in Sydney but will move to Brisbane. He is fluent in Italian and is passionate about football, motor sports and classic cars.