Mr B - your info gels with that we have from within the company (but I think it's the Airbus training system that's maxed, not the Jumbo).

Bit of a bugger for those of us type-frozen on the 'bus, but any movement is good news - especially for those guys who joined LH 3 years ago and have been on the bottom ever since!

Ah, okay, that might make sense. Sorry. I must have misunderstood. Whichever way we read it, the RAF heavy-jet lads and lasses just need to make sure they are in the starting blocks when the starting pistol fires. :ok:

fATPL restriction lifted.
 

With regard to the above I have some breaking news to lift the spirits:
The intitial restriction requiring possession of a Full ATPL has just been lifted. The website now features the following:

...for military pilots a frozen ATPL is acceptable.

Fantastic news I hope for those concerned and good luck to all.

(also BA recruiting again today, but are looking at 320/744 type-rated individuals only...)

''Not under any illusions old chap and I know more than enough folk in the airlines to know that the grass certainly isn't greener outside, merely fertilised with a different type of sh*t.''

Ha ha. Too true. When I joined Virgin in August 2001 during resettlement and final leave (not great timing) I was told I was redundant a few weeks after 9/11. So I managed to get made redundant from my first airline before I had even left the RAF! As it happened, they changed their mind a few hours later and eventually I would have been safe. Except that I left on voluntary redundancy.

Quote BEagle Several years ago, a chum who joined Virgin at just the right moment after leaving the RAF was whingeing about the fact that he was temporarily having to fly from Gatwick and that the company had only given him a company parking pass for his normal base at Heathrow.

Q. "Do they provide transport between Heathrow and Gatwick" A. "Yes"

Q. "What if you use your own car and drive to Gatwick?" A. "They pay the Heathrow-Gatwick mileage".

Q. "Even if you drive, as I b£oody well know you do, direct to Gatwick?" A. "Yes".

Q. "When did you last do SDO, you whingeing git?"



I hope this wasn't me!

Actually, the big bone of contention about this was about the way the company expected you to get to Gatwick. Virgin used to roster people from both LHR and LGW but tried to get away with it by having 'London' as a base in the contract. (Not legal unter FTLs.) When the CAA pointed this out, they then got the LGW crews to report to LHR one hour before and put ''Limo'' on the roster. Except there was no "Limo'', you had to get the regular shuttle bus which left every hour. Which meant if you were unlucky with your timings, you could have to get the bus 1 hr 55 minutes before report time at LGW. Add the 45 mins it took to park at the staff car park and get to the Queens building at LHR, it wasn't far off three hours you had to arrive at Heathrow before reporting for a two crew flight to the Caribbean using the "Florida 2'' variation to the FTLs - which was also being abused by VS. So it could lead to a very long and tiring day. Considering you could do this several times a month every month, it was getting beyond a joke. VS management's answer was "tough''.

So some of the more militant bods decided to do something about it and were turing up at LHR one hour before report at LGW and demanding the non-existant limo. After several flights were delayed and the crews had to go into discretion regularly, the CAA took notice and put a stop to it. That's when we got the LGW free parking. There wasn't any travel allowance for driving between LHR and LGW, and having to pay for the LGW parking several times a month put a big dent in the then very meagre VS pay.


Stop Start is right on with ''the grass certainly isn't greener outside, merely fertilised with a different type of sh*t.''

No, mate - it wasn't you!

Thanks for clarifying the story I was told. But the chap did say that he was paid the LHR-LGW mileage....

Of course, before the M25 was completed Virgin could have used the helicopter shuttle....:\ I think not!

I had a look at Skytrax comments for VS recently and was sad to read:

Same with any company, whatever their persusion. They used to be run by entrepenures or experts in the business; they are now run by accountants.

Virgin was never the airline 'it once was'! The rose-tinted backwards-facing specs have transformed earlier days at Virgin into a non-stop, alcohol-fuelled romp with hot and cold running hosties and first-class travel between piss-ups. Ah, if only it was really like that back in the day... OK, it had its moments, but really that's when it was little more than a flying club that got by on a wing and a prayer and an inordinate amount of luck.

I've been at Virgin 13 years and, while I still enjoy the job, it doesn't fit the descriptions I hear or read of it from those who've never been here! It may not be the 'giant' that the newspaper article mentioned (those Virgin PR people are good...), but it is a big organisation with a very hard-nosed attitude to business. Pilots are simply a (bloody expensive) business cost, and not gods to whom the rest of the airline gives obeisance. Sadly.

I've posted many times on the reality of longhaul airline life - do a search; you'll find them - and I've no reason to change anything I've said. There are many issues which detract from the utopia we'd love to achieve, but on the whole it's not a bad life if you can take the tedium that is an inevitable part of longhaul flying.

However, it may be too late this time - I suspect that article came out after the window for application closed. BA will be recruiting soon, I've no doubt, as will the lo-costers - but read as much as you can here about any airline you might wish to try before you commit pen to paper.

scroggs - the comment about Virgin Atlantic not being the airline it once was came from a couple of long-serving Virgin captains (who've been with the airline for rather longer than 13 years).

Regrettably, passenger opinion seems to agree.

The airline has lost its USP, it seems....

The USPs for me were a bar before launch, pretty girls and a choc ice before snoozing...

Have they gone?

G:ok:

I'm not disagreeing with you, BEags. But show me an organisation that is what it used to be? Virgin, like all airlines, got caught up in chasing the bottom line many years ago. Its USP has been little more than a figment of its customers' imaginations for some time. 'Still Red Hot' is, after all, just a marketing spiel. All that said, there are plenty worse places to work, and premium passengers still get a better experience than they do on most other airlines. But the expectations that still exist among those who aspire to work for Virgin need bringing somewhere closer to reality, without over-negativity.

The airline has lost its USP, it seems....

Not seeking to disagree, but actually it is Air Travel which has lost is USP. What for a brief moment in time was quick, fairly comfortable and very cost effective has become, tedious, stressful, increasingly expensive (think car parking etc) and undignified.

Off to London (from Scotland) next week. First class train ticket for roughly the same cost. Door to door travel time maybe a couple of hours more. Plus I'll get a shed load of work done on the train with internet access all the way and a first class lounge to boot.

10 year ago air travel V train, no contest.

Now air travel V train, no contest.

Just that the winners have reversed.

Virgin(inity) Lost forever
 

BEagle is correct Virgin is not what it was- however its probably still the best out there mainly because it has a 750 hr limit for pilots. Sadly the Hosties dont often go out as they save their allowances and dare i say it a lot of the crew like gardening uphill!- Added to the fact it has an HR dept that is out of control and a GMF who is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but and i say a big but it is still the best- speak to anyone in the UAE- life is pretty awful when you fly 900Hrs + per year. For any one joining VAA try a speak to guys on different fleets- The 747 fleet is very different to the A340 ( probably the best) but going on the A330 will be a rolling Goat F++K - so if you get in think twice about what fleet you are going to Rgds SF