My application is in , now the long wait !!
Im not expecting much as I heard that every time they open up recruitment they receive thousands of applications literally within a few days !!
I quite like the fact VS just slips along with it’s head below the radar , and is arguably the best gig to work for in the UK (for LH)

Riskybis indeed..... not looking too pretty at VA following the Benefits Review.

The business needs to seriously lean up its operation, looks like pilots will be taking the brunt of it first before they start at the hoards of unnecessary bottom feeders who occupy "the base".

tell me a company which doesn’t try and take from the pilots and I will show you a company that doesn’t exist

benefits are still pretty good

the main thing is the 750hrs a year , that is an absolute must and cannot go!!
Definetly one of the big points of me applying

I believe it’s a reduced pension for new joiners , it stays at 15% for guys already in . But for new pilots it will be 10%
Also income protection is now capped at 5 years , not sure what it was tbh.

That would be very interesting... even BA racing to the bottom still offer 15% company contribution. Albeit you’ll work harder and fly more

Surely the current pilots and unions will threaten to strike if Virgin try destroying the terms and conditions for future generations....... Oh no of course they won’t, the “I’m alright jack” mentality strikes again. Caution to Virgin pilots that attitude has destroyed BA and BALPA, a divided workforce will put all the power in the hands of the company, do all you can to avoid this, in the end they will get you too!

i agree with you Enzo , you guys at Virgin don’t want it going down the road of BA !!! Like the pp34 etc....
even with the profits we make at BA we will still get screwed !
I have heard that Virgin won’t make a profit this year (but that’s usually the case I hear as tax is nobody’s friend) and that’s what they want there employees to think to reduce terms ?? Anyone reflect on this

I very much agree with this. I’ve worked at a place that did this. It created a B scale. The company then recruited in a frenzy onto the B scale. Guess who then holds significant voting power in a few years? A firm knows divide and concur works. All it then needs to do is offer the B scalers a sweetened deal in return for a down vote on A scaler’s terms - the very A scalers who sold them out years ago in belief they had feathered their own nests.

The firm in new negotiation tell the B scalers a few “bad truths” about how the A scalers are willing to sell them out and then it’s a down vote for the A’s in return for a mediocre improvement for the Bs. The chickens come home to roost. And in years to come the whole process repeats with pay and pensions onto C scales.

Terms being stepped down like that is the oldest trick in the industrial handbook. Once you’ve divided yourselves, you’re at risk. Don’t fall for the temptation.

I see the same thing I left behind now playing out at BA. The cogs in motion.

Can anyone clarify the pension rumours?

If its anything like my employer, they try and take take take even when making record profits. How has it been at virgin? Do they use losses as an excuse to attack pilot t&c’s every year (especially now with invested interest from delta, Air France/KLM)?

Does anyone have any ideas on the long term game plan for the airline? Delta has 49%, Air France-KLM to have 31%, so with delta having 10% of Air France-KLM, technically Delta have a majority? I could be confusing it in my head though.. Any talk of what their long term game plan is? Will it purely be transatlantic stuff with time?

Branson’s letter to his employees says he’s ‘agreed with our partners how important it is the Virgin Atlantic brand lives on’ but there’s nothing definitively saying they can’t stop that being the case. I look at how Alaska bought out Virgin America and collapsed the brand and it worries me (different business model I suppose you could argue).

Fot the record I’ve always wanted to work for virgin, but some clarity on its future/plans for changes to its structure & working conditions would be really useful if there’s any talk out there?

Also so feel free to correct my doubts above!!

I have a few mates from within , and they say they have never felt more secure . Is Delta at the helm really an issue ? Pretty sure they are the largest and most profitable airline in the world?
Supposedly there is word of an expansion to be announced also .
im also very keen to join as I have mentioned before in this forum , although the pension change now makes it worse than my current Pension ......

What are the expansion rumours? Sounds interesting.. Do the known fleet orders/planned retirements match upto it?

I agree that Delta is most likely a force for good, and without it who knows where they could be.. That said, being the most profitable airline in the world, I’m sure they would like virgin to be profitable too? This is a time when all the big airlines are making making money with the same market conditions. Possibly a profitable to make a loss kind of situation of course.

supposedly they had a video from the chief pilot saying that on top of the new A350s (which has been moved forward) they are also going to get 15 other airframes (Boeing or Airbus)
No doubt Virgin wouldn’t be the same as it is without Delta , if anything at all ....
could someone from Virgin clarify this ?

yes yes
But there is a reason for the high pay in China ......
good luck calling in fatigued

I understand the problem , it’s the same in BA also

Yep, salaries in China are going through the roof, but one has to ask the question why that is ?

You are quite right “The Crew” when you quote net UK salary but that is not Virgin’s fault that we are so heavily taxed, and one has to put the package into context. Does a China contract provide for any pension/LOL/Healthcare/Death in Service/PHI etc ? I might be wrong but I understand you have to self fund this.

At the top of the Virgin tree a year 14 Captain and TRE is on about £185000. The company put 15% of this towards a pension which is £27000 a year. I would hazard a guess that to self fund the other benefits would be in the region of another £10000 a year which is about £225000 a year which is £18000 a month approx.

Just because the F/O pay scales go up to year 16 does not mean anyone will reach that. Commands have never been more than 13 years and now trickling towards the year 9 mark and will be at about year 8 very soon I reckon. The retirement bulge is already starting and company figures have to naturally be based on everyone leaving at 65, wheras most will leave before that.

Is it all a bed of roses here ? No, it is not, but what we have we will fight to maintain, including the golden egg of 750 hours.

£19000 a month to work in China ? Personally I would want a lot more than that. In fact I would not work there for all the tea in China

Yes. Great package. Bloomin marvellous. But is it sustainable for an airline that makes absolutely no money?

VA only exist for political reasons. No way Delta will continue to feeding the dead donkey unless it suits and that could change as quick as the wind.

By the looks of it , Virgin has never really made that much ever . I’m sure there is a reason for that (probably as a tax haven)

I just ran a reverse tax calculation . To take home £19000 / month , in the UK you would have to earn £410,000 per year. No commercial pilot in a brit airline earns this amount . Managers... yea you bet .


The point is a junior captain from easyjet , with 500 hours and around 7 years from their ab
initio training can relocate to Beijing & be taking home £ 19000 per month. Yes you live in china but wow , after 5 yrs come back and join Virgin. The money won’t have changed one bit !

Any news from anyone else in the airbus holdpool? Been swimming for a few months and no call yet

A friend of mine said he got a rejection letter some time back.

Interesting, have heard neither good nor bad. Would rather just know one way or another

I am the same, heard nothing. But I believe they have interviewed people for the current campaign. I was offered an interview before 2-3 years ago (was forced to turn it down which is another story). And that was almost a month to the day after I’d applied that I got the interview offer.

So after 2-3 months since applying, I am thinking it’s unlikely we’ll be invited to interview, maybe keeping us on file as a backup? But could be wrong.

havent heard any truth regarding the matter , one of the great things I have noticed over my very short time of being here is how relaxed the operation is . It’s probably got to do with the experience, as most guys that join have had a couple of years under the belt . So when a skipper sees a 2 stripper they don’t have to panic

The Crew

Sorry but that’s totally incorrect. You haven’t understood the BA way. A PP16 co-pilot becomes a PP16 Capt on promotion. The lower reaches of the Capt pay scale contain almost no members.

yeah would say so , lots of ex captains etc .... I have around 5000 ex BA 787