Virgin Atlantic benefits from BA strike action

Virgin Atlantic has said that it has increased the number of its call centre staff on duty in order to cope with the extra demand created by BA staff's strike action.

The airline stated that many staff have volunteered to work over and above their normal shift hours to deal with the flood of enquiries and bookings created by the chaos at Heathrow's Terminals 1 and 4. Virgin said that bookings doubled at the call centre last weekend at the height of the walk out and have continued at record levels this week.

Sir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Atlantic, commented;

"The BA strike took everyone by surprise and as a result we experienced an unprecedented surge in bookings this weekend. I would like to thank the Virgin Atlantic staff who volunteered to work around the clock both at the airport and call centres. It is a tribute to them that we managed to cope so well with the thousands of passengers who transferred over to us when they found themselves stranded by the strike action. We are now fully prepared for the continued high levels of bookings we expect over the coming days and weeks."