Virgin America hires American exec as its new CEO

Virgin America has signed on a top American Airlines executive, C. David Cush, as its new chief executive officer. Cush has held a number of high-level posts at American, most recently as senior vice president of global sales. He also served as vice president in charge of American’s St. Louis hub, and as vp-international planning and global alliances. Cush will replace Fred Reid, a former top executive at Lufthansa and Delta who has served as Virgin America’s CEO since the airline was organized. However, Virgin America was required to replace Reid in order to win an operating certificate from the Department of Transportation. DOT reportedly was concerned that Reid was too closely tied to Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, parent of Virgin Atlantic Airways. Virgin Group is a minority stockholder in Virgin America; U.S. law requires U.S.-certificated airlines to be majority-owned and controlled by U.S. citizens.