Virgin Australia says high staff illness rates hampering capacity, lifting fares

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SYDNEY — Virgin Australia has been unable to provide enough domestic capacity to meet demand that is tracking above 2019 levels because of high illness rates among staff, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

“It is people capacity, not aircraft capacity,” Virgin Chief Executive Jayne Hrdlicka said of the problems at a CAPA Centre for Aviation conference. “Hopefully by Christmas-time it is a bit more back to normal.”

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Capacity constraints made it “inevitable” that ticket prices remain a bit higher than normal for awhile, she said. (Reporting by Jamie Freed; Editing by Tom Hogue)