Virgin Express (VEX) lay-off

[Malpractice]

I've heard from reliable source that about 20 cabin crew members were layed off last week, one of them is a good friend of mine...
Does the commercial for FLY AID cost to much or are ther not enough donations?

[sn26567]

Such a layoff would normally have hit the press! I did not hear anything about it. VEX is not doing badly: why should they fire people now, when their network (but not their fleet) is expanding?

[DannyVDB]

Such a layoff would normally have hit the press! I did not hear anything about it. VEX is not doing badly: why should they fire people now, when their network (but not their fleet) is expanding?

SN26567,

It is typical since VEX is not a company where the working staff is represented through their unions or so, on the contrary! So things can pass more easily ...

I do not know if VEX is doing so well. They had 2nd quarter of the year a very small profit (<2k thousand eur) , and the first quarter they were heavy loss making if I am not wrong . Maybe there result for the 3th quarter will be only so and so? Don't forget they have > 80% loadfactor. What else can they do than ask higher prices for their tickets (???)

Danny

[Sabena_690]

I don't understand how it comes that VEX, in my opinion the most expensive low cost in Europe, manages to have so bad results, while offering a pure low cost product.

Frederic

[744rules]

Have they really been sacked, or are this temporary contracts that were not renewed. Maybe this is why the news didn't get to the press.
Anyway, no difference for the victims of this decision

[Avro]

It's really sad for those employees

I hope for them that they'll quickly find a new job

Chris

[Lien]

It is really sad for these flightcrews, we always
have to pay the bill.

But isn't there a 'rumour' that Branson wants
to sell Virgin Express. This in order to invest
in a new international airline in Australia ?

Lien !

[Avro]

But isn't there a 'rumour' that Branson wants
to sell Virgin Express. This in order to invest
in a new international airline in Australia ?

Really :wow:

From what I know he wants to invest more in the company.
He even told, thay he wanted to start long haul operations out of BRU one day

Regards
Chris
8)

[vflies]

But isn't there a 'rumour' that Branson wants
to sell Virgin Express. This in order to invest
in a new international airline in Australia ?

Indeed, Branson has recently launched PacificBlue, a Virgin Blue subsidiary. He plans flights to Christchurch and Hobart from February 2004 and has applied for traffic rights to Fiji...
More at www.flypacificblue.com

It is also true that an new American Virgin budget airline is in the pipeline and that he recently invested in South African NationwideAir (yes, the same that used to be known as SabenaNationwide a few years ago) to make it a feeder for Virgin Atlantic, in direct competition with BA's Comair.

However, all those (expensive) projects are either self-financed (PacificBlue will first use planes and staff from Virgin Blue and Nationwide was financed by the sell of a local Virgin hotel complex) or actually financed by others (US legislation limits foreign ownership of an airlines to a minority stake)... so they should not have any impact on Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Express...

Also, Richard Branson has recently demonstrated that he (finally) wanted VEX to expand as he personnally got involved in the last two commercial actions by his Belgian low-cost : the giant Virgin territory ad and the TV spot. Something he hadn't done in a lonng time...

Most probably, Virgin Express either didn't renew the last temporary contracts they had (AFAIK, they had 3 cabin crew courses last summer season in March, June and August, all for "seasonal contracts") or they decided to keep the best elements they needed, dwz keep the good guys who had only a temporary contract and sack the bad ones even if they had a full contract (vast, CDI)...

I believe the last option is most likely, especially as all last recruits were ex- VG, ex-Sabena staff, probably far better than their own EBA-Virgin breed... This of course, not being meant to offence anyone...

Hey guys, this was my first post here!
Hope it was not too long...

VFlies

[sn26567]

Hey guys, this was my first post here!
Hope it was not too long...

Welcome, VFlies.

If you go on posting like that, everyone will await your posts with a lot of interest.

And don't forget there are also ladies among then Luchtzak community.

[Comet]

A big welcome Vflies!!

And more publicity for my Group over on Luchtzak!! Thank you for that.

Your news reports will go down well on here, I would imagine, but please keep submitting them to us over on Yahoo! won't you?

Anyway, enjoy yourself on Luchtzak, won't you! It is the best aviation forum on the internet.

I have lost count now of how many members my Group shares with Luchtzak, probably more than it does with "Airliner".

But more members are always welcome!

[Comet]

Hey guys, this was my first post here!
Hope it was not too long...

Welcome, VFlies.

If you go on posting like that, everyone will await your posts with a lot of interest.

And don't forget there are also ladies among then Luchtzak community.

For those on Luchtzak who are not familiar with my Yahoo! Group, Vflies is our "champion news submitter" who posts our exclusives (maybe not so exclusive anymore!!)

His news posts really are worth reading!

[Avro]

Welcome on Luchtzak VFlies

I'm "avrorj85rules" on Comet's group

Chris
8)

[gliding-glider]

This is what I received as reply for an inside source . . . .
I asked about these mentioned lay-off's and herewith the answer:

Quote

Yep alle non productieven zijn gevraagd op te stappen.... met de winter
moeten we altijd een op-kuis doen... en dit was een goed moment om kwalteit te behouden en de miondere te laten gaan.....

Groeten,

Unquote

Meaning; Yes, all non-productives are asked to get redunded .... with the winter, we always have to clean-u .... and this was a good moment to keep quality and let the less-good go ....

Unquote

My opinion: be assured that this happens in any kind of business.

Greetz,

[Comet]

Welcome on Luchtzak VFlies

I'm "avrorj85rules" on Comet's group

Chris
8)

And VFlies is "boite13" on my Group. He used to have a name similar to the one he uses on Luchtzak.

[ANR1972]

But isn't there a 'rumour' that Branson wants
to sell Virgin Express. This in order to invest
in a new international airline in Australia ?

I believe the last option is most likely, especially as all last recruits were ex- VG, ex-Sabena staff, probably far better than their own EBA-Virgin breed... This of course, not being meant to offence anyone...

Hey guys, this was my first post here!
Hope it was not too long...

VFlies

PFF probably far better??? i don't think so... I m not judging anyone, but at the selections these people were able to work for peanuts... who is complaining the most? Yep again the majority of the new recruits... Before telling these things publically, think twice what you want to say...

These decisions to fire people reflect more the strange way of managing by the inflight manager and his team. All those who have a positive input, constructive criticism and are not following like cattle are being put aside. Quality? I don't think so... VEX doesn't want his staff to be inventive, or suggesting things what could improuve the service. L. Bernards and E. Nys ideas are the law all who disobey are dissidents... reality, pure reality.

Sad, as this company has a great potential of staff but the cabin inflight management governs on rumours and not on facts...Sad sad sad

P.S. about the EBA-VEX breed... how many people started their flying carreers in EBA-VEX in order to get later into other companies avoiding to pay the high inscription fees...
P.S. Don't speculate on the Virgin Imperium... it works in mysterious ways... Virign Express has as little to do with Virgin Australia as with Virgin Mobile... get good information first before publishing rubbish

[vflies]

PFF probably far better??? i don't think so... I m not judging anyone, but at the selections these people were able to work for peanuts... who is complaining the most? Yep again the majority of the new recruits... Before telling these things publically, think twice what you want to say...

These decisions to fire people reflect more the strange way of managing by the inflight manager and his team. All those who have a positive input, constructive criticism and are not following like cattle are being put aside. Quality? I don't think so... VEX doesn't want his staff to be inventive, or suggesting things what could improuve the service. L. Bernards and E. Nys ideas are the law all who disobey are dissidents... reality, pure reality.

Sad, as this company has a great potential of staff but the cabin inflight management governs on rumours and not on facts...Sad sad sad

P.S. about the EBA-VEX breed... how many people started their flying carreers in EBA-VEX in order to get later into other companies avoiding to pay the high inscription fees...
P.S. Don't speculate on the Virgin Imperium... it works in mysterious ways... Virign Express has as little to do with Virgin Australia as with Virgin Mobile... get good information first before publishing rubbish

Hello,

And thank you to all those who welcomed me here.
I appreciate that.

I wished I could stop this post here, but ANR1972's reaction calls for an answer...

Well, first of all, I already said I didn't want /mean to offend anyone. Apparently I did and I'm sorry about that.
I also used the word "probably" because IMHO crews trained for full service airlines are usually more commercial than those of budget carriers trained to... sell.
Once again, this only reflects my opinion but , believe me, I fly enough to be able to tell the difference...

Btw the fact that those "new recruits" coming from Sabena accept to work for lower wages shows only too well how much they love their job and how dedicated they are, otherwise they just wouldn't bother I guess... My point again.

I don't intent to discuss Virgin's management issues in this post. But, as Gliding-Glider rightly pointed out, it just sounds like a sensible management decision to keep the best and more productive employees and get rid of... well... the others. Even if they've got more seniority in the company...

However, I'm not sure about the rules of this forum because I'm new here, but I believe it is against the netiquette to name persons the way ANR1972 did. He/she attacked directly two persons and used their names, that doesn't seem fair. Especially if they don't have a way of defending themselves... Once again, my 2cents worth.... (2p for you, dear Comet )

Finally, sorry if one person (hopefully not many more than one!) considered my first post "rubbish", but I can assure you it is a documented post. My contributions usually are. I'll probably never reach a "A380 status", because I don't post that much, but I try to be correct in my assumptions. I usually choose for quality rather than quantity...
and above all, I try not to be judgemental...
Something some might need to learn.

Thank you again for welcoming me in the forum.
I look forward to reading your reactions here and in Comet's group.

VFlies

[Lien]

VEX seems to be very though with their crews ?

I don't have any experience with VEX.

Lien !

[Flybe]

So also a warm welcome for you from me, VFlies. Well, just to tell you that i, for one, certainly don't consider your posts rubbish. Sometimes some people seem to be a little bit short of temper, just don't mind them.

I like reading your posts, and i hope that we can enjoy them for much longer! And i agree with what you are saying, it is just logical economical practise, no matter if it can offend people, it happens. I'm not saying that it happened in this particular case, i have no sources about that, but it is for sure possible. And in my opinion it is always the best for that company (here an airline) in the long run!

Byebye now, i shouldn't actually be online now, i've so much to do, and actually i should already be ready to leave for the weekend!!!


Pieter

[VC10]

Hi VFlies, I'm a bit late with a welcome, but like all the others on this thread I'd like to welcome you onto Luchtzak. I'm also on Comets Sabena Club, but under a different nickname. (She is actually my daughter!) Good luck, I look forward to reading your news and posts!!