Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-600
Taken by @londonaviation_747
Virgin Atlantic started April with retiring the last of their Airbus A340 fleet. The last of their A340s were sent to Bournemouth for storage on the 24th of March. The A340 aircraft entered their fleet almost 20 years ago.
The airlines’ Airbus A340s were originally meant to leave Virgin Atlantic at the end of 2019. However, they decided to hold onto three of these aircraft to use them for the likes of supplying replacement Trent 1000 engines for their Dreamliners.
The last three A340s in service were registered G-VWIN, the ‘Lady Luck’, G-VFIT, the ‘Dancing Queen’ and G-VNAP, the ’Sleeping Beauty’. These were apart of an initial 29 A340s that were in the fleet. Their history with the airline dates back to 1993. Their first Airbus A340-300, registered G-VBUS, took to the skies. In July 2002, Virgin Atlantic decided to introduce the Airbus A340-600 into their fleet. Their most recent addition to their four-engined, single storied fleet was in 2007.
Moving on from these sad retirement, Virgin Atlantic has tried to get the UK Government to bail them out. The industry have supported the airline’s bailout with Heathrow and Airbus making statements to Simple Flying expressing their support. They have been struggling in the current environment with a substantial reduction in travel demands. It was simply uneconomical to continue flights. The airline decided at the time to reduce their flights to three destinations. They were Los Angeles, New York and Hong Kong.
Virgin Atlantic ordered 20 Airbus A330neos at the last Paris Air Show. However, the UK chairman of Airbus said that the collapse could have an extremely negative impact on these aircraft for the airline. Virgin Atlantic have plans to retire their Boeing 747s next year and use their Airbus A330neos to replace these 747s.
Along with the airline requesting bailout, Virgin boss, Richard Branson, stated that he would give the Virgin Group a quarter of a million dollars.
The airline has also carried out a medical flight on the 2nd of April. The Boeing 787 departed at 11:22 local time on the airlines’ first ever cargo flight. The aircraft registered G-VFAN flew to Shanghai to collect medical supplies for the NHS. They transported ventilators and essential PPE equipment for the National Health Service. Many cabin crew are facing unemployment during these hard times. However, they have been offered to use their comprehensive medical instructions they were taught while completeing cabin crew training to volunteer to work at the UK’s Nightingale hospitals. They are makeshift hospitals that are used to help those battling the coronavirus.
This month, news on a lawsuit filed against Virgin Atlantic has resurfaced. A former pilot for the airline is suing Virgin Atlantic for £1.7 million. This all started when he was forced out of his job after rumours were spread within his workplace and took action based on hearsay only.
The rumours began in 2015 when there was claims against Lawson that he took a forty minute nap while the remaining pilots of flight were not on deck. The long haul flight was going from London Heathrow to Hong Kong and lasted 11 hours 50 minutes. With 8 hours to go, both Captain Lawson’s co-pilots fell ill. The seasoned pilot decided to continue the remainder of the flight alone. One of the remaining pilots eventually recovered in time to aid land the aircraft. However, there was no incident report written up by Virgin Atlantic after the flight.
The airline decided to fire him after failing two simulator test. However, Lawson claims that his assessor was overly aggressive towards him due to these rumours. He is suing the airline for disability discrimination as he was mentally ill at the time of these exams due to stress and anxiety caused by these rumours. The disability case was thrown out of the court last January by the employment Tribunal. However, it was later reinstated by Judge Matthew after reading the details on the lawsuit.
Even though, Lawson hadn’t done anything he was subject to neglect and unfair treatment. His colleagues refused to work with him and was blocked by flight duties from October to November in 2015. He wasn’t told why he was being blocked. Lawson was left feeling anxious when his employer didn’t punish a report. However, the Judge stated: “He says he feels stressed and anxious when he learned of the rumours that were often raised, especially at a meeting on October 13, 2015, when he was asked if he had winked while the FO [flight officers] were off the flight deck. It describes the feeling of being ostracized by his colleagues and becoming increasingly isolated, feeling that his colleagues were avoiding talking to him, fearing any association with him…He felt that in conversations with his flight crew he was criticized, which made him doubt that he was making the right decisions. He said he feared going to work knowing that his Hong Kong flight would be brought by colleagues.”
Moving onto recent events, Virgin Atlantic announced on the 8th of April that they cease all passenger services from the 20th April until the 28th. This was an action taken due to the coronavirus outbreak. They are only to operate cargo flights. These flights are as followed: London Heathrow to JFK to take place from the 21st to the 26th of April, Heathrow to Hong Kong from the 20th to the 26th and Heathrow to Los Angeles from the 20th to the 26th. The airline is reviewing their flight programme every day and working with the Civil Aviation Authority to make sure all important cargo work is carried out. However, they are continuously cutting schedules.
On the 10th of April, a Virgin Atlantic Airbus A350-1000 that seemed to be registered G-VPRD operating flight VS685 was only carrying 7 passengers. The airline hasn’t announced any information on this flight but this is information taken from FlightRadar24. The plane was travelling from London Heathrow to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York as a cargo flight. However, it had space for seven passengers who were desperate to return to the States.
The Airbus A350-1000 is one of the newest aircraft produced by French manufacturers, Airbus. They were one of the first airlines to place an order for these beautiful, majestic aircraft and received G-VPRD in September of 2019.
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