This matter is disappointing at best.
Qantas owns a 33 per cent stake in Jetstar Japan.
There are similar proceedings under way between Qantas and Mr Rohrlach in Singapore, where he signed the employment contract with the airline. Virgin is relatively confident it can argue the case in front of the Supreme Court of NSW should it be thrown out on jurisdictional grounds.
Anticipating the retaliation from Qantas, Mr Rohrlach applied for anti-suit protection to render the gardening leave clause unenforceable in Singapore.
Qantas lodged its case in the NSW Supreme Court late last week. Justice James Stevenson will hear the action brought by the airline and the matter is set for a directions hearing on Tuesday.
Virgin will argue Mr Rohrlach is not familiar with any sensitive information received while he onboarded the Qantas role, as he only had cursory looks at it before resigning in mid-December and does not recall any such material.
If Qantas wins, Mr Rohrlach will be unable to start his job at Virgin until September 18, whereas Virgin had planned for him to start in mid-May.
This is an inglorious sequence of events, Qantas said.
At no point after negotiations between Mr Rohrlach and Virgin began, and right up until he informed Qantas of his new role at Velocity, was it suggested that the flow of information from Qantas should cease.
Meanwhile, Virgin is confident its position will be vindicated in court.
We are disappointed that Qantas has chosen to criticise us … while court proceedings are on foot in relation to this matter, and categorically deny that we have been anything but proper, a Virgin spokeswoman said.
We will not be distracted from our commitment to be Australias most loved and best value airline for business and leisure travellers.
Mr Rohrlach was one of a series of appointments made by new Virgin chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka in January, which included others who had spent time as Qantas and Jetstar executives. Apart from Mr Rohrlach, the only other appointee who was coming directly from the rival airline was Paul Jones.
Mr Jones left his job as chief operating officer of Qantas in December and will begin as Virgins chief customer officer in June.
Others joining the relaunched airline include a2 Milk chief people officer Lisa Burquest, International Airlines Group strategy director Alistair Hartley, and Arnotts Group corporate affairs vice-president Moksha Watts.
Woolworths chief operating officer David Marr is set to become the carriers new chief financial officer.