Virgin Atlantic pilots consider strike over fatigue

Pilots astatine Virgin Atlantic person indicated they would see going connected onslaught pursuing "serious concerns" astir fatigue and their wellbeing.

Union Balpa said that successful a caller vote, 96% of Virgin Atlantic pilots supported a ballot connected concern action.

At contented are scheduling and rostering arrangements that were enactment successful spot during Covid which volition travel to an extremity successful December.

Virgin said it was consenting to participate into talks successful the coming weeks.

The hose said the existing wage and manner statement was "agreed, developed and supported by Balpa aviator representatives wrong Virgin Atlantic, and our aviator community".

A spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic said: "We proceed to honour each agreements and person offered to participate ceremonial wage and manner negotiations with Balpa's aviator national representatives successful the coming weeks, good successful beforehand of the statement expiring successful December."

Airlines were 1 of the worst deed industries during the pandemic aft planetary question came to a standstill to halt the dispersed of Covid.

Virgin Atlantic employs 835 pilots and it is believed the bulk are members of the Balpa pilots' union.

A spokesperson for Balpa said: "Our members person registered a commercialized quality with Virgin Atlantic arising retired of superior concerns relating to aviator fatigue and wellbeing astir scheduling and rostering arrangements, implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic."

It said that 81% of its Virgin Atlantic national members voted successful the ballot which its said gave Balpa "an overwhelming mandate to prosecute this dispute".

The maximum flying clip for a commercialized aviator is 900 hours per calendar year, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.

It is understood that the rostered mean for Virgin Atlantic pilots is astir 750 hours.

Virgin Atlantic is portion of Virgin Group, which was founded by Sir Richard Branson.

The billionaire precocious told the BBC that helium feared losing his full concern empire, which besides see gyms and hotels, during the pandemic. He said the shutdowns outgo him £1.5bn personally.

Sir Richard had asked the UK authorities for assistance successful 2020 but was rejected. In the end, Virgin Group injected £200m into the hose and secured different concern to support the concern afloat.

At the time, it chopped 3,500 staff, leaving it with 6,500 employees.

On Sunday, a spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic said that the hose "underwent a extremist translation arsenic a effect of the interaction of Covid-19, which was imaginable owed to the corporate effort of our astonishing people".

They said: "This was cardinal to our endurance and our steadfast committedness to returning to sustainable profitability. We're grateful to them all, including our pilots who play a pivotal relation successful the occurrence of our operation."

Balpa said its members "feel precise strongly" astir aviator fatigue and wellbeing.

The national said it prefers to code matters done "negotiation and concern compromise and volition lone countenance concern enactment arsenic a past resort".

It added: "We stay acceptable to commence negotiations to find an acceptable mode guardant and impulse Virgin Atlantic to perceive to its unit and enactment guardant an acceptable connection that our members could support."