Virgin Atlantic Airways announced plans today to recruit a total of 1,500 staff across the UK.
Around 1,100 cabin crew will be hired, together with 300 flight deck staff and engineering staff, based at Gatwick and Heathrow airports.
A further 100 office employees will be taken on at the Virgin Atlantic headquarters in Crawley, West Sussex.
Around 1,000 of the jobs will be new positions, with the remaining 500 staff hired to replace those expected to leave as a result of natural employee turnover. The recruitment drive will take place over the next 18 months.
The announcement was made by Virgin Atlantic chairman Sir Richard Branson at Gatwick Airport before the airline's inaugural flight to Cuba and The Bahamas.
The new services to the Caribbean will operate twice weekly between Gatwick and Havana from July 7th.
The company has also announced it intends to launch services to Jamaica and Dubai in 2006.
Virgin Atlantic's fleet is also due to expand, with seven A340-600 aircraft entering service by the end of 2006, taking the airline's total number of aircraft to 39.
PA