Originally Posted by
Jetkopite
Hi guys,
Anyone know if Virgin have stopped pilot recruitment until next year?? as i have heard this today from someone.
Thanks
Jetkopite
Yes, this would seem to be true. It would appear that the airline has decided that the cumulative delays to the A380 plus other economic signals suggest that it's a good time to slow down the previously rapid rate of expansion. The result is that the much-rumoured A330/350/787 buy has been postponed (if it ever actually existed!) and the deliveries of the remaining A340-600s will be slowed slightly. That leaves us very slightly overborne for pilots right now, and so new recruiting has been put on hold.
However, I would anticipate that those currently in the hold pool will remain there, and will be called forward in due course. All the A346 deliveries scheduled for next year are additional to the fleet (no aeroplanes are scheduled to retire) and will require around 8-9 crews per aircraft. The original schedule called for 6 deliveries, If this is slowed to 4, say, we'll still need around 70 new pilots. As some of the A346 commanders will come from the B744 fleet, those 70 will probably include a few new guys for that fleet.
Scroggs