Virgin Australia brings in veteran CIO

Virgin Australia has appointed its first chief information officer as it pushes ahead with its IT optimisation program.

A spokesperson for the airline today confirmed former Sabre and Qantas executive Lawrie Turner has been appointed to the role.

Turner was most recently chief information officer at Queensland rail freight company Aurizon (formerly QR National), where he worked with former Qantas colleague Curtis Davies. Prior to that he was chief information officer at Optus.

Turner previously worked with Coles and David Jones and also spent 14 years with Qantas, followed by a two-year stint with Sabre in the UK.

Virgin Australia last month switched on its Sabre-powered ticketing and reservation system, bringing its former international and domestic arms onto one platform.

The introduction of the CIO role at Virgin Australia will allow the airline to “actively pursue a focus on optimising all of our IT functions,” the Virgin spokesperson said today.