Virgin Atlantic swaps crew with Virgin Blue

Virgin Atlantic has announced its first ever job swap scheme with its sister airline Virgin Blue, the successful low-cost carrier based in Australia.

The exchange is for a period of one year and involves 18 Virgin Atlantic crew working as Virgin Blue crew for one year in Australia and 20 Virgin Blue crew relocating to London to fly for Virgin Atlantic. Six of the Virgin Atlantic crew will be based in Melbourne and the remaining 12 will be based in Brisbane. 

Sir Richard Branson had the idea for the job swap after successfully launching Virgin Blue in Australia and thought it would give the two airlines the opportunity to work together. The idea was then advertised to both crews in October 2003 and after receiving many applications the crew were chosen on their overall work performance to take part in the exchange which began in March this year.

Sir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Atlantic, said:

"This is a very exciting exchange and I am pleased we are able to link up and work with our sister airline, Virgin Blue. Virgin Blue is a huge success in Australia and I am sure our Virgin Atlantic crew will find the experience challenging. The scheme seems very popular so far and I am looking forward to meeting up with the Virgin Atlantic crew when we launch our own services to Sydney this year."

Throughout the exchange both groups will remain eligible for the travel concessions they already enjoy and following six months service at their new airline they will also be able to utilise the new concessions on offer.

Upon completion of the job swap programme, the Virgin Atlantic crew will return to the previous positions they held at Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Blue launched in August 2000 and offers services on routes between all of Australia's major cities and has 40 aircraft in its fleet.