Virgin Atlantic to take on 1,500 more staff
Virgin Atlantic Airways announced plans today to recruit a total of 1,500 staff across the UK.
About 1,100 cabin crew will be hired, together with 300 flight deck staff and engineering staff, based at Gatwick and Heathrow Airports.
A further 100 office employees will be taken on at the Virgin Atlantic headquarters in Crawley, West Sussex.
The announcement was made by Virgin Atlantic chairman Sir Richard Branson at Gatwick Airport before the airline’s inaugural flight to Cuba and The Bahamas.
“At a time when the airline industry is up against high oil prices, with many struggling to survive, Virgin Atlantic added services to Sydney in December last year, Mumbai in March this year, Havana and Nassau this summer and will launch services between Manchester to Barbados later this year,” he said.
The new services to the Caribbean will operate twice weekly between Gatwick and Havana from July 7.
Around 1,000 of the jobs will be new positions, with the remaining 500 staff hired to replace those expected to leave as a result of natural employee turnover.
The recruitment drive will take place over the next 18 months.
The company has also announced it intends to launch services to Jamaica and Dubai in 2006.
Virgin Atlantic’s fleet is also due to expand, with seven A340-600 aircraft entering service by the end of 2006, taking the airline’s total number of aircraft to 39.
