Originally Posted by
RexBanner
Well without knowing the ins and outs of Virgin’s scheduling agreement I do know that they are limited to 700 hours a year, whereas we at BA are up to 900 and in very many cases on Long Haul we hit it. However these are (relatively speaking of course) marginal gains for Flight Ops and do not begin to explain the large disparity between the operating margin at BA and VS, there’s other factors at play there.
Its almost impossible to make a like for like comparison. Many trips that both airlines fly are crewed differently, at least half a dozen I can think of in Virgin are 2 pilots/1 local night/ 3 day trips, that BA do with either 3 pilots or 2 local nights downroute. Virgin pilots may fly less hours but with the limited network and different industrial agreements, pilots on the Airbus in particular will have done all 750 hours in the seat in the last few years.