Virgin Blue to create 1000 jobs with new Sydney facility

Virgin Blue will establish a training and maintenance base at Sydney Airport, creating 1000 jobs.

Virgin Blue will establish a training and maintenance base at Sydney Airport, creating 1000 jobs.

Virgin, which is headquartered in Brisbane and also has facilities in Melbourne, was lured to Sydney by a package of incentives from the New South Wales Government. It is believed the incentives included payroll tax breaks.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma says the new base will create investment of more than $10 million for the state. “This means jobs, top quality skilled jobs for Sydney,” he said in a statement.

The new positions will be for pilots, maintenance engineers and cabin crew. The facility is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year.

Virgin has also decided Sydney will be the new home of its V Australia service, which will see the airline start a daily service to North America.

The establishment of the site makes Virgin Blue one of the few big Australian companies to actually create jobs in the last few months. Over the past six weeks, companies including Ford, Fairfax Media, Insurance Australia Group and Babcock & Brown have sacked more than 5000 workers.

Virgin Blue is back under the control of founder Richard Branson after transport giant Toll Holdings decided to distribute its 63% shareholding among Toll shareholders.

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