Virgin Australia will insource its Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne international ramp (baggage handling) operations from early 2024.

Virgin Australia said this complements existing insourced domestic ramp operations across mainline airports. It added in a statement that "this is both the economically rational decision and core to our commitment to upskilling our people and providing more hours to team members who want them."

Virgin Australia General Manager Airport Experience Paul Woosnam said Virgin Australia’s short-haul international operation plays an important role in delivering value and choice to our customers, with 10-12 flights a day from Australia to six destinations across the Asia-Pacific region.

“There are plans to grow in this area as we receive our new fleet of fuel-efficient aircraft, presenting great opportunities for Virgin Australia, as well as opportunities for our people to grow and develop,” Mr Woosnam said.

"Our decision to insource these roles demonstrates Virgin Australia’s commitment to further expand our workgroup and deliver additional work and career opportunities. We previously committed to review all opportunities that made good business sense, and this is a great example of our business delivering opportunities for our shareholders and our people.”

Melbourne and Sydney will begin the transition from the 1st and 151t of February 2024 respectively, with Brisbane to follow commencing from the 1st May 2024. Insiders said that this complements the current structure in Adelaide and allows all the mainline airports both domestic and international to be aligned under the same operating model.

About 40 staff are involved and they will be added to the current ramp team of about 1000.

JOIN: AirlineRatings.com YouTube Channel

GET: Accurate MH370 Information From AirlineRatings.com Newsletter

Airlineratings.com is packed with information about air travel and answers questions that many of us may have thought of, but didn’t know who to ask. Well, now you do!

Airlineratings.com was developed to provide everyone in the world with a one-stop shop for everything related to airlines, formed by a team of aviation editors, who have forensically researched nearly every airline in the world.

Our rating system is rated from one to seven stars on safety – with seven being the highest ranking. Within each airline, you will find the country of origin, airline code, booking URL and seat map information. The rating system takes into account a number of different factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies, lead associations as well as the airline’s own safety data. Every airline has a safety rating breakdown so you can see exactly how they rate.

Over 230 of the airlines on the site that carry 99 per cent of the world’s passengers have a product rating. Given that low-cost, regional and full-service carriers are so different we have constructed a different rating system for each which can be found within each airline.