a quote from the Head of Training Standards, Virgin Atlantic
You may find it answers some of your queries
Thank you for your comments. I understand that this can me an emotive subject but I can assure you that this is not pilots on the cheap as Virgin are going to invest in their development with us.
A lot of work has gone on over the last 18 months to be at a stage to launch and I am very excited and proud to be part of it.
To just put minds at rest about future DEP recruitment please find below 2 points:
1/ We envisage future recruitment will continue to include significant numbers of experienced pilots via our existing 3,000 hr application routes. With almost half of our pilot workforce expected to retire within the next 15 years, there will be opportunity via both the cadet route and via the conventional experienced pilot recruitment route, and we’re also looking in the longer-term to offer an intermediate programme between the two.
2/ First pilots from the Future Pilot programme are expected to commence line flying with us in 2017. We have recently updated the 10 candidates in our pilot hold pool that we do not expect to undertake recruitment in 2015 (although there will be some internal command promotions) as a result of the change in mix of our route network between flights requiring two and three pilot complements. However, we expect that we will be recruiting in early 2016 – ahead of the first pilots from our Future Pilot programme arriving – and will afford priority at that time to those candidates currently in our hold pool. It’s also likely that we’ll invite further external applications from pilots meeting our criteria of 3,000 hrs including 1,000 hrs on a commercial jet transport in excess of 15 tonnes MTOW
Thank you
Nathan
Training Standards Manager
Virgin Atlantic