Former Virgin America CEO Reid lands new job

The former CEO of Virgin America Inc. has accepted a new job running private aviation companies Skyjet and Flexjet.

Fred Reid will start as president of the Dallas-based companies Aug. 25.

Reid was named 2007 Executive of the Year by the San Francisco Business Times for his work launching Virgin America. Burlingame-based Virgin America, which began carrying travelers August 2007, flies to San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Las Vegas, New York and Washington D.C.

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Hired by Virgin America part-owner Richard Branson, Reid led the difficult fund raising effort for the airline and then battled for more than a year to get regulatory approval before the airline was allowed to fly.

Reid left Virgin America in 2007 as part of an unusual condition of federal approval for the airline. Concerned that Branson, a British citizen, might be controlling the airline in the background, federal regulators required that Reid leave the airline.

David Cush, a top executive at American Airlines Inc., took over the CEO job at Virgin America last December.

In his new position at Skyjet and Flexjet, Reid moves into the custom travel industry. Skyjet is a charter jet company and Flexjet offers fractional ownership of jets.

The two companies have about 1,000 employees and 100 planes between them. Both companies are subsidiaries of Bombardier Inc., the Montreal-based aerospace company.