Foreign Pilots at Virgin Atlantic

[shon7]

Are there any foreign pilots at VS? Recently, on a flight from DEL-LHR the person sitting 2 rows in front claimed to be a VS Pilot from India. Am just curious because I had heard rumors about this as Virgin was trying to have a more diverse employeee pool.

Also - what determines what aircraft one can fly. Is this usually what country the Aircraft is registered in?

[scroggs]

Yes, there are quite a few non-British pilots at Virgin. Among others, there are French, German, Australian, Iraqi, New Zealander, US, South African and Bajan. There may well be one or more Indian pilots. As in any EU-based JAA airline, you may work here if you have the right to live and work in the EU, and you have the relevent JAA or CAA qualifications, and such further qualification (hours/types) that Virgin may demand.

To answer your second question fully, I need more information about exactly from what perspective you're asking. Is your question related to your first point? Are you wondering if a pilot's nationality and his aircraft's country of registration are related? (Not necessarily) Or are you asking a more general question about what qualifications are required to fly given aircraft types?

[shon7]

Thanks for your response Scroggs.

I guess I was vague in my second question.

I was curious if "the country where the aircraft is registered" has any relation to "the citizenship/work permit of the flight crew."

For example: do U.S. registered aircraft essentially have to have an American Crew?

[OzExpat]

Yes, as far as I'm aware, the crew must hold the requisite qualifications from the country where the aircraft is registered. As I understand it, issues such as short-term leasing creates a problem and usually ends up that the leased aircraft is flown by crews who are specially imported for the term of the lease. In long term leasing, the aircraft is placed on the local register so that locally qualified crews can fly it.

There may be some differences to this in JAR-land though.