Think Virgin America Chairman Don Carty had anything to do with this?

Virgin America announced today that it has found a replacement for CEO Fred Reid. Dave Cush, formerly SVP of Global Sales at American, will take over as CEO at the airline effective Dec.10.

So — is this good for Virgin, good for American — bad for either?

I think Cush’s departure is not a particularly good piece of news for American.  As for Virgin, I’m sure Cush’s international experience will come in handy — no matter what the future holds for Virgin America. My guess is that his type of experience will be quite valuable to the Virgin Group in the long term.

As for Cush himself, this is clearly a nice grab, as no one is really moving up at American. The only way up is out.

Ticker: (NYSE:AMR)

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