Virgin Atlantic

[Tags]

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.

[kintyred]

Originally Posted by Capt Scribble

Kintyred. Legal limits on duty and flying hours are stipulated by EU regs, 900hrs a year and 100hrs a month (there are other limits). Local agreements may limit these to lower values. So if you are paid a salary for flying 900 hrs a year but only rostered for 500 hrs, the company is not getting full value from its contract with you. I flew with a holiday charter, where high monthly hours were achieved over the summer but winter work was pretty sparse so no more than 600 hrs was usual for us. With someone like BA/Virgin, who have more constant work across the year, 900/700 is achievable and therefore their pilots Achieve high productivity.

All very interesting. I hope the accountants never take a look in my logbook!

[GKOC41]

I somehow doubt any 750 or 900 hour limit is going to be an issue and Aircrew will have bigger issues to worry about.

[Burpbot]

Originally Posted by kintyred

All very interesting. I hope the accountants never take a look in my logbook!

Wow! Naive!

[virgin mary]

Virgin Atlantic announces 90 cargo flights per week starting in May.

https://virginatlanticcargo.com/cont...rgoflights.pdf

[A320baby]

Originally Posted by virgin mary

Virgin Atlantic announces 90 cargo flights per week starting in May.

https://virginatlanticcargo.com/cont...rgoflights.pdf

There's a lot of fight in the old girl yet!

[xray one]

Hopefully the Government get the message as well.

[Riskybis]

Originally Posted by xray one

Hopefully the Government get the message as well.

fingers crossed pal

[squarecrow]

https://www.headforpoints.com/2020/0...nment-bailout/

[A320baby]

Originally Posted by squarecrow

https://www.headforpoints.com/2020/0...nment-bailout/

Virgin haven't been denied a package, they was told to resubmit and negotiations are on going.

[5strypes]

Any update on VS situation? Are the 90 cargo flights a week enough to help tide them over for some time?

[ORAC]

Virgin Atlantic to cease operations out of Gatwick and cut one third of staff, 3150 in total.

Gatwick slots to be retained pending the future. At least some of 747 fleet to be retired.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavir...vival-11983452

[Professor Plum]

Hope all works out well for you guys. Got a few friends gatwick based working for Virgin

[RoyHudd]

Easy to understand and yet hard to quite believe. The profession is being rent asunder, and perhaps for each pilot one can count 8 support staff within the airline plus many service folk outside. I wish to express my deep concern for all affected by this awful situation. Let us hope that the airline world bounces back as it did in the year following the 9/11 attacks. I somehow doubt it.

[DooblerChina]

What’s the plan? what about MAN/GLA etc... LIFO? or fleet based?

All the best guys and girls.

[BlackIsle]

Well the 747-400 fleet of 7 has seemingly been retired with immediate effect....

Bye-bye Boeing 747

Passengers hoping to fly on Virgin Atlantic’s 747s before the expected final boarding call in 2021 are, unfortunately, out of luck. In a statement sent to Simple Flying today, the airline said:
“As Virgin Atlantic aims to establish itself as the sustainability leader, it will fly only wide-body, twin-engine aircraft from London Heathrow and Manchester to the most popular destinations… From today, Virgin Atlantic will no longer use all of its seven 747-400s, with four A330-200 aircraft retiring in early 2022 as planned.”

[esscee]

Read the statement more carefully. "No longer use ALL of its 7 747-400's". Which implies some will be used as and when. Likely they will not pay for any more big checks but utilise the fleet of 747's as cheaply as possible until the Big checks are due.

[Suzeman]

Originally Posted by esscee

Read the statement more carefully. "No longer use ALL of its 7 747-400's". Which implies some will be used as and when. Likely they will not pay for any more big checks but utilise the fleet of 747's as cheaply as possible until the Big checks are due.

Read the statement more carefully. How does the above square with the statement below?

it will fly only wide-body, twin-engine aircraft from London Heathrow and Manchester to the most popular destinations…

So some conflict here. I wonder if "No longer use ALL of its 7 747-400's" is where ALL actually means the whole fleet?

[A320baby]

All the 747s are going.

[Suzeman]

Originally Posted by A320baby

All the 747s are going.

Yes that was my understanding too. Currently 5 at MAN now.