Virgin Atlantic
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Last night had dinner with old Virgin LHR pals (Ground staff and CC) who are still at Virgin LHR - All on furlough until Oct and then will take statutory redundancy, no jobs offered to most, but 'some selective' staff got jobs offered to them, either a newly named position, or offered a drastically awful contract on annualised hours.
VS Pals had 23-35 years then you are on the heap at nearly or at 60 years of age -
Yes many of you of course are in the same position all over our industry suffering the same pain.
Virgin at Gatwick is gone - Staff told VS will never go back there. No jobs offered elsewhere so they said.
Virgin Atlantic seeking protection under chapter 15 of the US bankruptcy code, which simply allows a foreign debtor to shield it's assets in the country, but is of course a major development as far as UK staff are concerned.
CC Pals on BA worldwide fleet - some had 35-41 years service and all but one have pushed the 'to go' button
Only one has elected to stay and wait to be selected for a job in the new BA CC fleet, he is almost 60.
I told him he was mad and would earn more at Waitrose but he loves his flying job, it is his life, we all know what that means.
VS Pals had 23-35 years then you are on the heap at nearly or at 60 years of age -
Yes many of you of course are in the same position all over our industry suffering the same pain.
Virgin at Gatwick is gone - Staff told VS will never go back there. No jobs offered elsewhere so they said.
Virgin Atlantic seeking protection under chapter 15 of the US bankruptcy code, which simply allows a foreign debtor to shield it's assets in the country, but is of course a major development as far as UK staff are concerned.
CC Pals on BA worldwide fleet - some had 35-41 years service and all but one have pushed the 'to go' button
Only one has elected to stay and wait to be selected for a job in the new BA CC fleet, he is almost 60.
I told him he was mad and would earn more at Waitrose but he loves his flying job, it is his life, we all know what that means.
I really feel for them. I miss seeing VS at LGW
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Seems odd. They need to keep the A350s and B789s busy first and the flying program is a fraction of the size it was. It may be the A330s are cycling through for maintenance at the hangar? One of the A332s was here for a while and left for DUS, presumably end of lease.
Now the Base going......
https://www.twinfm.com/article/march...ity-in-crawley
https://www.twinfm.com/article/march...ity-in-crawley
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Seems odd. They need to keep the A350s and B789s busy first and the flying program is a fraction of the size it was. It may be the A330s are cycling through for maintenance at the hangar? One of the A332s was here for a while and left for DUS, presumably end of lease.
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Now the Base going......
https://www.twinfm.com/article/march...ity-in-crawley
https://www.twinfm.com/article/march...ity-in-crawley
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Now the Base going......
https://www.twinfm.com/article/march...ity-in-crawley
https://www.twinfm.com/article/march...ity-in-crawley
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You missed out some keywords, sale and short term leaseback with a long term plan of it being converted in to a freight facility.
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Apologies if this has been asked before, but does anyone know if VS still plan on kitting out the final 5 A350s with a leisure-orientated configuration? IIRC, the original plan was to base these a/c at LGW/MAN, but this has since changed with the closure of LGW operations and consolidation of leisure-based routes at LHR.
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Apologies if this has been asked before, but does anyone know if VS still plan on kitting out the final 5 A350s with a leisure-orientated configuration? IIRC, the original plan was to base these a/c at LGW/MAN, but this has since changed with the closure of LGW operations and consolidation of leisure-based routes at LHR.
Apologies if this has been asked before, but does anyone know if VS still plan on kitting out the final 5 A350s with a leisure-orientated configuration? IIRC, the original plan was to base these a/c at LGW/MAN, but this has since changed with the closure of LGW operations and consolidation of leisure-based routes at LHR.
8 a/c of that new fleet are deferred ufn.
As with all things Virgin plans change in mid course, plus now we have seen Virgin completely abandon LGW and all it's operations there, and its Base HQ at Crawley now just been sold for £30m.
So, what next....
747's and A340-600's are all now retired, plus all or most of the 4 ex LTU A330-200's will likely go back early to the Lessor as well - These 4 had been working on the leisure routes pre-Covid since VS got them from AB's liquidators.
As such there is no leisure market for 2020, nor either any winter holiday season 2020/2021 (just maybe could we see BGI on the winter Hols list from LHR?)
MCO MIA CPT and LAS are all out UFN, and some of the Caribbean islands are in and out of the UK Gov No-Go list.
Whilst ANU BGI HAV GND and UVF are OK, TAB, POS, The BVI's and all of the Dutch and French islands are no-go.
Frankly, I would revisit this thread once VS's £££ security is sewn up and good n dandy - There was some better news announced yesterday about that.
Fingers crossed they get through the other side.
Back to topic - I doubt VS's priority just yet will be high density A350's...
Last edited by rog747; 26th Aug 2020 at 13:34.
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Well yes the A350-1000's were bought to replace at first the LGW 747 leisure based fleet and cover those sunny routes.
8 a/c of that new fleet are deferred ufn.
As with all things Virgin plans change in mid course, plus now we have seen Virgin completely abandon LGW and all it's operations there, and its Base HQ at Crawley now just been sold for £30m.
So, what next....
747's and A340-600's are all now retired, plus all or most of the 4 ex LTU A330-200's will likely go back early to the Lessor as well - These 4 had been working on the leisure routes pre-Covid since VS got them from AB's liquidators.
As such there is no leisure market for 2020, nor either any winter holiday season 2020/2021 (just maybe could we see BGI on the winter Hols list from LHR?)
MCO MIA CPT and LAS are all out UFN, and some of the Caribbean islands are in and out of the UK Gov No-Go list.
Whilst ANU BGI HAV GND and UVF are OK, TAB, POS, The BVI's and all of the Dutch and French islands are no-go.
Frankly, I would revisit this thread once VS's £££ security is sewn up and good n dandy - There was some better news announced yesterday about that.
Fingers crossed they get through the other side.
Back to topic - I doubt VS's priority just yet will be high density A350's...
8 a/c of that new fleet are deferred ufn.
As with all things Virgin plans change in mid course, plus now we have seen Virgin completely abandon LGW and all it's operations there, and its Base HQ at Crawley now just been sold for £30m.
So, what next....
747's and A340-600's are all now retired, plus all or most of the 4 ex LTU A330-200's will likely go back early to the Lessor as well - These 4 had been working on the leisure routes pre-Covid since VS got them from AB's liquidators.
As such there is no leisure market for 2020, nor either any winter holiday season 2020/2021 (just maybe could we see BGI on the winter Hols list from LHR?)
MCO MIA CPT and LAS are all out UFN, and some of the Caribbean islands are in and out of the UK Gov No-Go list.
Whilst ANU BGI HAV GND and UVF are OK, TAB, POS, The BVI's and all of the Dutch and French islands are no-go.
Frankly, I would revisit this thread once VS's £££ security is sewn up and good n dandy - There was some better news announced yesterday about that.
Fingers crossed they get through the other side.
Back to topic - I doubt VS's priority just yet will be high density A350's...
"Coronavirus (COVID-19): countries and territories exempt from advice against ‘all but essential’ international travel - GOV.UK" https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavi...ational-travel
The only reason I mentioned The French and Dutch Caribbean islands plus TAB & POS was that 'if' Caribbean operations resume for the likes of VS BA and TOM then currently many of those airports are off limits for diversions in the event of Wx, medical, or Tech issues...Dire emergency excepted I would imagine.
FYI the latest GOV advice is no non-essential travel does currently apply to Aruba and Bonaire, you are correct in stating that Curacao and most of the French Caribbean is now OK to go and is again exempt, thanks for the heads up. Seems to change all the time lol
FYI the latest GOV advice is no non-essential travel does currently apply to Aruba and Bonaire, you are correct in stating that Curacao and most of the French Caribbean is now OK to go and is again exempt, thanks for the heads up. Seems to change all the time lol
just maybe could we see BGI on the winter Hols list from LHR?
I think on the same day BAW sent 777's from LGW to UVF, BGI and ANU, so there is some activity restarting to the Caribbean.
The Virgin Barbados route has always in the high winter season been extremely busy - So much so it was moved up to LHR from LGW at the peak time to
appeal to a High J figure.