Virgin Atlantic has appointed Corneel Koster as its new CEO, effective January 1, 2026.
Koster will replace Shai Weiss, who has held the role of CEO for seven years, and who will step down on December 31, 2025.
Koster has extensive leadership experience in the airline sector, having held senior operational and commercial roles at Virgin Atlantic, Delta Air Lines, Aeroméxico and KLM.
In 2019, Koster served as board member and chief customer officer at Virgin Atlantic, later expanding his role to chief customer and operating officer in 2020.
Between 2010 and 2013, he also served as director of operations for safety and security at Virgin Atlantic.
In a statement, Virgin Atlantic said that Koster has been “instrumental” in delivering safe and reliable operations, leading frontline teams and delivering customer experience at the airline.
“As part of the leadership team, he played a pivotal role in ensuring the airline emerged from the pandemic thriving and reliable,” it said.
Koster also led the introduction of Virgin’s first A330neo aircraft and the delivery of its ongoing digital operational transformation.
Weiss became CEO in January 2019 and steered the company through the COVID-19 pandemic, completing an opertional transformation and delivering record performance in 2024.
He joined the airline as chief financial officer in 2014 and later served as chief commercial officer.
During his tenure, the airline returned to profitability and was rated in successive years as the UK’s only Global Five Star operator by the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX).