Virgin America ready to hire pilots Eric Young
Virgin America Inc. is about to hire the first of roughly 100 pilots it wants to add in 2006 as the startup airline continues preparations to start flying this year.
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The Burlingame-based airline said it will begin by hiring six pilots. Those six need to be veteran flyers because they will help Virgin America as it seeks necessary regulatory approvals. Virgin America said it is reviewing pilot resumes and will make job offers around March 1. Training will start in April.
Even as it prepares to hire pilots, Virgin America must get separate approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation before it can start carrying passengers.
The Transportation Department review has been slowed by protests from rival airlines and airline labor unions. They allege Virgin America's application is incomplete. They also challenge whether Virgin America is controlled by U.S. citizens, as required by law, or by British entrepreneur Richard Branson. Branson's Virgin Group Ltd. has invested some of the airline's $177 million in startup cash and controls 25 percent of the airline's voting stock.
Virgin America, in its application to federal regulators, said it meets U.S. ownership requirements. The company said its principal investor, which controls 75 percent of voting rights, is U.S.-based VAI Partners LLC, an investment company formed by private equity firms Black Canyon Capital LLC and Cyrus Capital Partners LP. The airline last week filed paperwork with the Transportation Department saying its application is complete and asked that the review process move ahead. "Virgin America is aware of no legitimate due process or other reason for the continued suspension of the normal procedural schedule," the airline wrote in its filing.
"All we're trying to do is get the process back on its normal track," said Fred Reid, Virgin America CEO. Reid has said he expects the airline to fly this year. But that will happen only if the federal review concludes within the next several months.
Virgin America said rival airlines are stalling the startup company's application "in an effort to protect themselves from the competition" that Virgin America represents.
Virgin America plans to offer domestic service and low fares like Southwest Airlines Co. and Jetblue Airways Corp. Virgin America licenses Branson's brand name but is not part of other airlines begun by Branson, which include London-based Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd.
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