Complete your application by clicking ‘Update My Details’ in the navigation menu of the search and apply section. Your username is the email address you gave us when you registered and your password is what you have chosen at registration.
When completing your application, please make sure you have ‘ticked’ each different section of the application, you’ve uploaded your CV and that you click the ‘Submit Application’ link once you’ve finished.
We are sure your dream role at Virgin Atlantic is just around the corner. So that you are first to know when new vacancies are posted you can register to receive career changing job alerts from us. Click here to head straight there.
Don’t worry about it, we do it all the time too. In the event of this career emergency please click here which will allow you to reset your password.
Our recruitment process changes depending on the type of position we’re recruiting for, but it might include interviews, assessment centres and testing. To see more information about the types of assessment we use, please view our assessment process.
This varies from role to role, however you can rest assured that we respond to every candidate with an outcome as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, we can’t interview everybody who applies, and there might be applicants who have more relevant skills & experience suited to the role profile. Please be advised that due to the amount of applications we receive we are unable to offer feedback to our external candidates.
If you’re offered a role with us, we need you to provide us with a 5 year reference history. You will also be asked to account for any gaps in employment during this time. We encourage people to provide this information as soon as they receive the link following an offer of employment and to stay in touch with us throughout the process as we require all new employees to be fully referenced in order to start in the business. Should your referencing not be completed in time then this will result in your start date being pushed back in order for the referencing to be fully completed.
You’ll also be asked to apply for a Criminal Records Certificate (CRC) and you’ll need to cover this cost. When you’re registering on-line for your pre-employment screening, you’ll be asked to pay a fee of £25 by debit or credit card to cover the cost of your Basic Disclosure. When invited for interview you will be given details of the documentation you will need to bring along and we ask that you read this carefully to ensure that you have the appropriate documents. Suitable documentation for proof of address is a bank statement, utility bill or credit card statement dated within the last 3 months. Mobile phone bills are not considered as an appropriate proof of address.
If you have been resident in an overseas country for 6 months or longer within the last 5 years, we’ll also require you to apply for a CRC specific to that country. Costs for this can vary between countries. If you have any questions about this process, we’ll be happy to answer these during your interview. For more information click here.
Please be assured we will confidentially store your information in line with relevant legislation and best practice.
Being an airline and tour operator, we have security measures in place to keep us safe. Therefore, when you attend your interview can you bring along with you the following original documentation and colour photocopies to your interview. One of our lovely Talent Experience Coordinators or Interviewers will take these on the day.
- Passport
- Documented proof of your right to work and remain in the UK (i.e. an official document which states your National insurance number, this must either be an NI Card, P60 or P45)
- Proof of any relevant technical qualifications or licences / approvals requested in the job advertisement (certificates are not required for school qualifications).
- Proof of address, this could be a photocard drivers licence, a recent utility bill or bank statement dated within the last two months that confirms your current address.
Please be assured we will confidentially store your information in line with relevant legislation and best practice.
We’ve recently been told that people have been receiving emails containing fake offers of employment with Virgin companies. These emails are sometimes sent in response to CV’s or your contact details being posted on recruitment sites and other websites.
These jobs don’t exist and Virgin companies with genuine employment opportunities won’t contact you in this way. If you’ve received a suspicious email, please don’t send your personal details, money or respond in any way. Please contact escams@fly.virgin.com or the relevant Virgin Group company as soon as possible.
For more information about what to expect before we make a formal job offer please click here.
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 any notice period that you have with your current employer.
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.
Where we state a minimum age for our applicants this is due to legal or regulatory requirements. Due to the fast-moving nature of our business it’s important that all of our applicants meet the age requirements stated at the time of application.
If you are really keen to get feedback from an interview please contact the Talent Experience Partner or Specialist who supported you through the process. In the meantime, should any other advertised opportunities be of interest we would welcome your application and you can apply straight away, we just advise that external applicants to not apply for the same role within a 6 month period.
To view all of our current opportunities, please visit https://careersuk.virgin-atlantic.com/ or https://careers.virginholidays.co.uk/
Here at Virgin, we love people and believe you should be treated as an individual. After all its how we treat one another that makes us feel special. We will always seek to make appropriate adjustments to our recruitment, workplaces and work processes to be fully inclusive to people with different needs and working styles.
If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments for you from application on wards, please contact recruitment@fly.virgin.com where one of our team will be able to help.
To give you a taster- the kinds of adjustments we can make but are not limited to are;
- Having additional time to read/prepare.
- Visiting the place of interview in advance and giving clear directions to the interview location.
- Requesting that the interview takes place in a quiet or different space.
- Offering an interview time that doesn’t require travel in peak hours.
- A preparatory phone call to outline the interview process.
Let us know how we can help and support you to perform at your best, and we’ll work together to see how we can accommodate you.
Pilot Recruitment
The Virgin Atlantic Future Flyers cadet scheme has been set up to help you achieve your dream of becoming a pilot once you turn 18. We periodically recruit for this so click here to register for alerts to be the first to find out about Future Flyer opportunities as they are advertised.
Until then, there are lots of things you can do to find out about becoming a pilot or even getting yourself sometime in the air at the controls.
Air Cadets
The Air Cadets is a nationwide Organisation which doesn’t just introduce you to becoming air-minded, you’ll also do plenty of outward bound and team building activities too. There are many opportunities within the Air Cadets, aside from flying; gain additional qualifications, take responsibility, be promoted within the Organisation, learn new skills and even teach them to others. You can join from the ages of 12 to 17 years old.
Find out more here.
Go Gliding!
Going gliding at your local club will introduce you to flying in its purest form, relatively inexpensively. Did you know that you can fly solo at the age of 14 in the UK? If you fancy holding a gliding licence before you hold your driving license, then you can find out where your nearest club is by looking at the BGA website. Some of the larger clubs even have their own cadet schemes especially for young people.
Find out more here.
Free Flying!
You can access general aviation careers information from the organisations mentioned below. They also run scholarship and bursary schemes to help young people go flying more easily. These range from scholarships for full Private Pilots Licences to gliding courses. All of these organisations have branches specially for like-minded young people who share a passion for flying.
Find out more:
Honourable Company of Air Pilots
I am already 18 years old
When you do reach 18, you can apply for the Virgin Atlantic Future Flyers cadet scheme through L3 Airline Academy, a partner company, who have a structured pilot training programme that leads towards the Civil Aviation Authority’s latest Multi Pilot License (MPL) and could lead to a position as a First Officer on the Airbus A330-300 with Virgin Atlantic Airways.
- You need to be between 18 and 57 years old
- Have 5 GCSEs including Maths and Science above a grade C
- Have no criminal convictions
- Have Level 6 English
- Have right to live and work in UK
More details can be found here.
I am already a First Officer with another airline
Virgin Atlantic advertises for direct entry First Officers with either Airbus and/or Boeing experience.
- For Airbus you must hold a current type rating on the Airbus and dependent on the aircraft type, have a minimum of 1500 hours total flying time including at least 1,000 Airbus hours of which 500 must be on the A330 or A340 types.
- For Boeing (dependent of the specific aircraft requirement) you will need a minimum experience of 1,500 hours total flying time and 500 hours on type, and have flown the aircraft type within the last 6 months.
We strongly advise you to keep an eye on our careers pages for details of our cadet programme. On these pages you can also find information on aviation schools and the CAA all of whom have advice on how to become a pilot.
We require a minimum of 1500 hours experience, an Airbus or Boeing rating and 500 hours ‘on type’. You must hold a current UK Class one medical and a full ERSA ATPL license, or to be able to demonstrate an ERSA License can be obtained before starting with us (for a military pilot a Frozen ERSA APTL is acceptable).
We are pleased that you have chosen to progress your Pilot career with Virgin Atlantic. We have selected Zenon as our exclusive recruitment partner to support the recruitment process of our Pilots until 2022. When you use the ‘Apply now’ buttons on our Pilot page you will be redirected to Zenon to submit your application details. The hiring decisions are then made jointly with the Virgin Atlantic team.
I have been invited to a Pilot interview, can I bring an electronic copy of my log book?
We’d prefer that you bring your hard copy, however, where this is not possible, we’re happy to accept an emailed copy for interview.
Cabin Crew Recruitment
To join as crew, you will need the following experience and attributes:
- You need to be a minimum of 18 years of age
- In order to reach the overhead lockers on board you must have an arm reach of 210cm
- You will need to be able to do the brace position which involves having your feet flat on the floor whilst sitting in our jump seat which is 45cm off the floor.
- Good customer service experience
- Have a minimum of three GCSE or equivalent level passes (it is not necessary to have done a crew related course)
- Have no live criminal convictions or cases pending, including drink driving convictions.
We would also suggest taking any opportunity to participate in team activities (either part-time/summer holiday/Saturday jobs etc.) in customer service while you are still in school or college. This could contribute to an all-rounded experience that may be helpful when you eventually apply for a cabin crew role.
You need to be a minimum of 18 years of age at the time of your application, please note that we cannot accept applications until you are 18 years old.
We receive a huge response to our Cabin Crew adverts and it can therefore take some time to screen all applications. On average at time of submission our time frame is usually 1-3 months to receive a reply, however this maybe sooner. Please be assured that we respond to every candidate with an outcome as soon as possible via e-mail.
Everything else
We are sorry but we do not have work experience opportunities within Virgin Atlantic. We’d want any work experience with us to be a meaningful one whilst on site, however due to the large volume of requests we receive, our teams unfortunately don’t have capacity to accommodate this.
We would, however, welcome future applications from you for any vacancies that you feel you may be suitable for.
On a bi annual cycle we recruit for Engineering graduates to join our team, so click here to register for alerts to be the first to find out about when opportunities are advertised.
Currently we do not offer a formal graduate placement scheme, however we have future plans to look at this, so please check back on our careers site for updates.
The experience required for all our roles varies on a case by case basis. The “About You” section of each individual role advert will give an overview of the candidate background needed.
Please check-out the Retail Stores page to find a list of all of our locations.
https://careers.virginholidays.co.uk/recruitment-journey/interview-locations/retail-stores
The experience required for all of our roles varies on a case by case basis. The “About You” section of each individual role advert will give an overview of the candidate background needed.
Our apprenticeship programmes are an amazing opportunity for ambitious and passionate individuals to gain new knowledge and skills. You’ll earn whilst you learn, be given real responsibility, and be supported by the best in the business.
Predominately our apprenticeships are in Cabin Crew, Retail (VHols) Engineering, Finance and Business Admin. Please visit our apprenticeship page for more information. You can also register for alerts to be the first to find out about any new opportunities as they are advertised, or visit our Apprenticeship page for more info.
There are lots of different Virgin companies you could work for; however we only recruit people for Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Cargo and Virgin Holidays. For other roles in the Virgin Group, like Virgin Trains, Virgin Media, Virgin Active etc. please visit Virgin Careers website.