Once your application and interest have been verified by easyJet you will be sent an online psychometric assessment to complete via email. This assessment should take roughly 1 – 2 hours of your time to complete, and we kindly ask that you finish it within 2 weeks of receiving our invite.

If you meet the required benchmark, we’ll invite you to our Head Office in Crawley, West Sussex where your get a chance to meet our team, understand more about Virgin Atlantic, alongside completing an interview process lasting around 60 minutes. During our interview, we’ll ask you a mix of behavioural and technical questions to get to know you better.

Each candidate must meet a predefined benchmark in their psychometric assessment to advance to the final interview stage. This benchmark aligns with our external recruitment process and reflects the standards we expect from all candidates. It ensures that you possess the cognitive abilities, decision-making skills, and critical competencies essential for the pilot role at Virgin Atlantic. Adhering to these standards is crucial for maintaining the safety, reliability, and efficiency required in high-pressure situations, which are paramount to the well-being of both our passengers and crew.

We appreciate the effort and time you invested in our interview process so we are happy to offer individual feedback following your final interview (we’re unable to provide this for the psychometric testing element). We believe providing interview feedback is important as it supports your personal development and growth whilst fostering a positive and transparent hiring experience.

Congratulations on your offer! We will advise you of your start date in the schedule which accompanies your terms and conditions of employment. Your start date may also vary depending on the availability of any training you require as part of your new role or our managed pathway agreements. Our first course commences in May 2025

We require all new employees to be fully referenced in order to start in the business so should your referencing not be completed in time then this will result in your start date being pushed back in order for this to be fully completed.

Unfortunately, if you have applied directly with Virgin Atlantic within the last six months and were unsuccessful in our recruitment process, we are unable to consider your interest in the Managed Pathway at this time.

Upon confirmation you have been successful in securing a role with Virgin Atlantic, we will email you a “Essentials ready” guide outlining the process you must commence for obtaining a new airside ID and a US VISA.  

Yes, a US VISA is required to operate our network. All details are included in the pack we will send you called “Essentials ready”

As our pilots are Heathrow based and your ground school will take place in Manor Royal – Crawley, we allow pilots to claim £45 a day in costs towards travelling to/from CAE.

Your onboarding process will include several steps, but don’t worry we’ll guide you through each one and make sure you have all the information you need along the way.

All new staff are required to get a Basic Disclosure Certificate, also known as a Criminal Record Check. For more details on Basic Disclosures, please click here for the government DBS website. Details on referencing and the DBS requirement will be included in an “Essentials Ready” guide we send across upon accepting a role with us.

A base contract (full time in accordance with our CLA 2024 with the option to pick up extra working). Other contract options can be reviewed 12 -18 months but only after completion of your CLC and are outlined in the PPM (pilot procedures manual)

Your rank will be determined by your previous total flying hours: 

• Pilots with 1500 hours will join as a First Officer
• Pilots with 3000+ hours will join as Senior First Officer 

Our pilot pay is incremented yearly, full details will be provided at offer stage.

Our plan is to have you operating for 3 years after you complete your training. At the point you have 6 months of your placement left – if you wish to return to easyJet you must write to your Flight Crew Manager at Virgin Atlantic, confirming your resignation as well as writing to easyJet confirming your intention to re-join them.

All pilots on a base contract have a minimum of 10 days off a month. Our trip lengths average 3-5 days with 2 or 3 days off at home base. There is no fixed pattern of working and all rosters are in line with rostering practises outlined in the CLA (Collective Labour agreement) 2024.

All individuals will be joining us on either the A350 or A330, and we’ll confirm your allocation at the time of offer. During the interview process, we’re happy to share examples of our rosters to help bring this to life for you.

All pilots have 35 days annual leave per year, with this increasing by 1 day every year for the 3 years resulting in 38 days leave in your third year. We have a rotating leave bidding system where our leave team will assign you either group A/B/C. This rotates round every leave period resulting in you being in the top bid group every 3 periods of leave. More information is included in the onboarding site and your Flight Crew Manager will be on hand to support you as well.

Along with your training footprint, we will send you access to our pilot onboarding site. Within this platform you can book a uniform fitting at our uniform boutique store at CAE Crawley. Your uniform will be provided free of charge.

Yes, all LHR based pilots are able to request a parking space at the staff car park. The Flight Crew Management team will show you how to request this when you start with us. 

Ground school and SIMS will likely be facilitated at CAE in Manor Royal with your training sectors operating out of LHR.

Prior to your training, you will attend “First Dates” which is our company induction. We know getting a good start and laying solid foundations for learning is a crucial part of successful development at Virgin. The journey starts with getting immersed in the company, the values, the team and everything available to help you learn. A series of sessions to get immersed in the brand and up to speed with the different areas of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays will be provided.

Once we have assigned all spaces on the course, we will email you confirmation of First Dates and your first day of training at CAE.  

The Virgin Atlantic rewards and benefits package reflects our inclusive culture and values and is designed to reward, support and develop our people as they take on the world in their own way. As part of our offer, you’ll receive:  

• Income protection insurance 

• Loss of licence insurance 

• Life Assurance 

• Staff travel 

• Digital GP support 

• Private medical cover for you and your family 

• Generous pension scheme 

We’re investing in research, new technologies, new aircrafts and innovations to reduce our impact in the air and on the ground. We’re on a mission to create a greener future for aviation.

Our state-of-the-art fleet is a key factor to make our flight operations as carbon-efficient as possible and we have a strong history of backing new, carbon-saving technologies for continuous improvement of our operations. We can’t do it alone, and we know it won’t be fixed overnight. But we’re in it for the long haul. Click here to learn more about our mission to be net zero by 2050. Want to learn more about all of our fleet click here 

Please email Pilot.Recruitment@fly.virgin.com with any further questions you have, until you’re allocated a Flight Crew Manager who you will meet on your induction day.