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Former Virgin Australia CEO Rob Sharp will continue to head Airservices Australia after his interim tenure in the top job was made permanent.
Sharp has received praise in the industry for steadying the organisation after it faced criticism it allowed too many air traffic controllers to leave during COVID-19 – a situation many argued led to delays and cancellations for passengers.
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He first joined Airservices in July 2024 for what was initially meant to be a 12-month interim appointment, replacing outgoing CEO Jason Harfield.
“I’m proud to be appointed chief executive officer of Airservices Australia and to continue working with our incredible team and industry partners,” he posted on LinkedIn on Friday.
“I look forward to building on our progress to enhance safety, efficiency, and innovation for the benefit of the travelling public and the broader community.”
Sharp has more than 25 years of senior executive experience in the aviation and transport sectors.
Beginning at Qantas, he rose to become CEO of Tigerair for four years before taking the same role at Virgin Australia, though reported to overall chief John Borghetti. Afterwards, he served as secretary of Transport for NSW from 2021 to 2023.
Previous CEO Harfield spent much of the end of his tenure dealing with a row over whether or not Airservices had enough employees following hundreds of occasions in 2022 where it effectively shut down a significant portion of airspace.
At the time, Airservices argued it had 100 more air traffic controllers than it required to operate Australia’s network and insisted the shutdowns were a result of a “short-term” and “unplanned” leave of controllers.
However, Qantas said the staff shortages had a “significant impact” on its reliability, alongside similar claims from the air traffic control union Civil Air and the Australian Federation of Air Pilots.
Airservices appeared to be making progress at the end of Harfield’s tenure, and that has continued under his successor.
In December, for example, Airservices said delays attributed to its own performance stood at just 0.1 per cent of all delays.
The current Labor federal government also appeared to blame the previous Coalition administration for the problems, rather than Airservices executives.
“While the previous Coalition Government encouraged the retirement of highly skilled air traffic controllers and hollowed out Airservices Australia, the Albanese Government continues to work to rebuild this important organisation,” Transport Minister Catherine King said.
“I congratulate Mr Sharp on his appointment and look forward to working closely with him and Airservices Australia to ensure our aviation industry remains among the safest in the world.”
It comes after Sharp told an audience at the Australian Aviation Summit that innovation would be a continuing focus of his tenure in charge.
“The way we think about airspace is evolving as we get more and more demands from organisations wanting to use airspace. We need to adapt for the future in a way that’s safe but also sustainable and balances the needs of all users,” he said.
Sharp pointed to a trial of user-preferred routing on 38 scheduled routes, as well as the Flight Information Management System to manage drone traffic; digital aerodrome services, which will launch next year at Canberra Airport and be integrated into Western Sydney International Airport when it opens in 2026; and the OneSKY-CMATS program to unify civil and military air traffic management across Australia, as being major innovation initiatives at Airservices.
