Gordo
to flesh out tailscrape's comment: after September 11th 2001, Virgin announced that 40% (yes, you read it right) of its flight deck workforce would be made redundant. That comprised 25% of the pilots and all of the flight engineers. The Classic fleet (11 aircraft) was to be retired, all expansion plans cancelled, and a very large reduction in the route structure was announced. The main reason for this was that Virgin had been expanding too quickly and was already beginning to overreach itself when 9/11 occurred. There were already rumours of planned redundancies before 9/11, so the reaction after that event had to be severe.
As a result, we had an airline full of young captains, some promoted after as little as 12 months, and now-frustrated FOs who could look forward (ahem) to a significant period of zero expansion, and thus no commands. At all. We also had a very large number of our mates on the dole, and an unhealthy number of commanders demoted to FO to reflect the diminished fleet.
As it happened, the airline overestimated the effect of 9/11 on our trading (or underestimated our customers' loyalty?) and fairly quickly began to retract some of the measures taken. Thank God they did overreact, or we wouldn't be here at all now! Nearly all of those made redundant or on unpaid leave (but, unfortunately, not the FE's) were re-hired, and most of the 'temporarily displaced captains' have regained their seats. The airline is still, two years down the line, smaller than it was in summer 2001, new commands are still on hold, and our expansion plans are more modest than they were then. They are gaining momentum, though, and we're looking for more aeroplanes. Who knows what the future holds? It certainly looks better than the past!
Scroggs