The party’s over: Virgin tells its air crews to stop mingling, for now

VIRGIN ATLANTIC, the airline founded by Sir Richard Branson, the flamboyant billionaire, has called time on one of the industry’s best loved staff perks – the opportunity to party in far-flung places.

Since Dec 21, the carrier has segregated pilots and cabin crew during their leisure time amid concerns that the practice risks spreading coronavirus.

Though they often spend up to 12 hours working in close quarters on long-haul flights to destinations such as

Miami, Los Angeles and the Caribbean, air crew have been told they must not eat or socialise together or mingle with staff from other flights.

It is thought that the airline is concerned that an outbreak of coronavirus could lead to return flights being cancelled if staff fall ill.

The edict contrasts sharply with airlines such as British Airways, which have no such rules in place. Martin Chalk, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), said: “The challenges faced and overcome by pilots and our cabin crew colleagues during the pandemic, particularly the overblown and oppressive requirements in some places, are illustrated by the difficulties this airline is trying to address.

“Airline crew already spend considerable time away from their family and friends. These … restrictions should be lifted as quickly as possible to enable them to support each other as normal while away from home.”

A senior airline operations manager added: “This sounds like British Airways of (a) bygone era with pilots and cabin crew forced to stay at different hotels. I can only think this makes the working environment unpleasant all for the sake of no obvious health and safety benefits.”

Virgin Atlantic’s strict approach contrasts with Sir Richard’s original ethos when he launched the airline in 1984.

“I thought if Virgin had an airline we could put the fun back into flying and bring glamour back to the skies,” he said at the time.

The Virgin Group founder, knighted in 2000 for services to entrepreneurship, who has an estimated net worth of £4billion, dressed up as an air stewardess in 2013 after losing a bet with fellow Formula One owner Tony Fernandes over whose team would perform better over the course of the motor-racing season.

In Oct 2020, Virgin Atlantic was the first UK airline to introduce pre-flight Covid testing for cabin crew.

Sir Richard, 71, announced earlier this month that he was staying on a Caribbean island he owns after testing positive for coronavirus

A spokesman for Virgin Atlantic said: “We continue to take pre-emptive measures to uphold operational and staffing resilience, always putting the health and safety of our people and our customers first.

“Alongside any local requirements, temporary measures are in place for our crews to minimise the risk of Covid-19 transmission while they are overseas.

“This guidance to our people means we ensure they stay healthy and well and avoid flight disruption or cancellations for customers.

“These measures are kept under constant review and will be maintained only as long as necessary.”