Virgin Atlantic will cut nearly a third of its workforce, reduce its fleet size and suspend flying out of London's Gatwick airport as part of its survival plan for the Covid-19 crisis.
On Tuesday, the carrier began a 45-day "companywide consultation period" with its unions to plan for a workforce reduction of 3,150 jobs "across all functions," according to Virgin Atlantic. It currently employees about 10,000 people.
In terms of operations, Virgin Atlantic will fly only "to the most popular destinations" from London Heathrow and Manchester on widebody, twin-engine aircraft. Flights from Gatwick will be moved to Heathrow, but Virgin Atlantic intends to keep its Gatwick slot portfolio and return as demand returns. It immediately is retiring its seven Boeing 747-400 aircraft and will continue flying its four Airbus A330-200 aircraft until early 2022, when they already had been set to retire.
The carrier is planning for a recovery period of up to three years, at which point Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss said he hopes lost jobs are restored.
"After Sept. 11 and the global financial crisis, we took similar painful measures but fortunately many members of our team were back flying with us within a couple of years," Weiss said in a statement. "Depending on how long the pandemic lasts and the period of time our planes are grounded for, hopefully the same will happen this time."