Virgin Blue was today recognised as one of the Nation’s top companies to work for in the Hewitt Associates annual list of Australia’s Best Employers for 2003.
The low fare airline received highly commended honours, ranking second in the 1000 plus employee category after travel specialists Flight Centre.
Virgin Blue’s entrance to this year’s list is exciting, as the company has strived to maintain it’s unique corporate culture during a period of enormous growth and expansion.
Bruce Highfield, Head of Virgin Blue HR, said, “This is a tremendous achievement but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be doing things better. There’s still a lot of things we can improve and we look forward to working with our dedicated staff at all levels of the company to keep our sense of camaraderie as the company continues to grow.”
Since commencing operations in August 2000, Virgin Blue’s employee numbers have increased nearly 800% from 280 to 2300 team members in less than three years.
Virgin Blue Chief Executive, Brett Godfrey, said, “It is a real honour to be so highly ranked among some of the most respected and established companies in Australia, particularly when you consider Virgin Blue is not yet three years old.”
“We congratulate our fellow Queensland company Flight Centre for coming first, but we hope they’re looking over their shoulder for next year”, he finished.
This latest achievement joins Virgin Blue’s growing swag of service awards with the low fare airline recently receiving international acclaim in the prestigious Travel Quality.com survey.
With 28 aircraft in the fleet and more on the way, Virgin Blue’s growth phase is set to soar on both the domestic and international markets.
* Full details on Virgin Blue’s previous awards can be found at www.virginblue.com.au in the “About Us” tab.
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