Virgin Command!
 

Hi Gents (and Ladies)

I am in the Virgin 'System' and I am currently an FO on the 400 with another 'Biggie'. I want to join Virgin but cant get a straight answer for Command. If I join now I am told (by my peers) it could be in excess of 9 yrs! Any truth to this? I know it was 3-4 yrs before Sept 11th.

I am very close to a 400 Command where I am and need to know the exact time to Command if I am gonna make the move!

I know you will tell me this has been done and dusted many times but just a short response to the time would be very much appreciated!

Cheers!

PS. whats the monthly take home salary of an FO by the way?

The last guys to get a command at Virgin in 3-4 years joined around 1997. Some of these are F/Os again at present. For anyone joining today (not that you can) a wait of 10-12 years is probably on the cards.

RedStripe,

You have confirmed my thoughts, Thanks for your reply :)

I left about a year ago, close to the bottom of the seniority list. Assuming 8 crews an aircraft, the company would have had to aquire another 32 aircraft for me to get a command assuming no captains left before their normal retirement age - which they don't tend to. As Virgin have approx twice the number of FOs than Captains - and also a lot of the Captains hired in the last boom were about my age, I couldn,t see a command coming my way for a very long time.

No one can say how long it will take to be considered for a command in Virgin, but it won't be a short time. Ten years or more is a fair guess.

I've been at VS over 5 years, and I can't see a command being closer than 2 years from now. On 9/11 it was months away :{

Almost all of those demoted after 9/11 are back in the LHS, and we are getting close to having the same number of ac on the line as we had then. There are moves to order more, although type is unknown, and we have 5 more A340-600s and 6 A380s to come over the next 4 or 5 years. However, we will be retiring some of the A343s, and any new order, coupled with the arrival of the A380s, will probably see the earliest 744s depart shortly thereafter. What's the net result? Well, it's not going to be a return to command in 4-5 years! For the guys who've been in the airline between 3 and 5 years, I'd guess that 8 years to command is probably in the ballpark. It's too difficult to predict what the future is for those with less than 3 years in VS, but anywhere from 6 years to 12 years should cover it!

Virgin pay has been covered in other threads both in this Forum and in Wannabes/Jobs.

Gents,

Many thanks for the heads up :)

Been in 6.5 years and still 50 places away from command. Reckon on another 2 years. There are 300 FO's behind me!