And Virgin Atlantic and the budget carrier easyJet, both based in the U.K., are working with the country's National Health Service to staff nearly half a dozen new hospitals opening specifically to deal with the coronavirus crisis. The employees will change beds, tend to patients and assist doctors and nurses working on the wards.
"We are very proud of our highly skilled people at Virgin Atlantic," said Corneel Koster, the company's chief customer officer, in a statement provided to NPR."Since the Government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was announced, we have been inundated with our employees looking to help other organizations at this time of crisis."he was excited to sign up after learning of the opportunity from the airline.
"I immediately replied to the email," he said."I felt this was a very huge opportunity for me to help and to contribute to society and help the healthcare, which I think is very important in these times." The only airlines that have announced such programs have received outside support. The Wallenberg Foundation in Sweden has stepped up to help SAS, and British airline employees who are pivoting to work or volunteer at the new hospitals fighting COVID-19 will get free accommodation as well as partial board.
Julie Hedrick, the national president of the Association of Flight Attendants, did not rule out the possibility of similar initiatives in the U.S."We are having conversations with our leaders in Washington to discuss utilizing interested Flight Attendants to lend a hand during this crisis," she said in a statement to NPR."We know there is interest among the American Airlines Flight Attendant group, and we stand ready to assist.
Ohhhhhhhhhh hellllllllllll noooooo!!!! Hahahah you lost your job but we got you one where you could very well get sick and die. 🤦♂️
Excellent! All the best to them.
Yes! ewarren this is what we need-think tanks and committees that are matching up skilled workers getting laid off to needed areas. Some congressional relief funds should be used to help this process. A regional database? People need to feel connected and empowered to change.
No job for you but you will get to go into an environment where you have a good chance of contacting a virus where you could die a lonely and horrible death
Huh?
I work with a nurse that was laid off after 9/11. She was a flight attendant for American Airlines and they paid for her to get her LPN degree. Sadly, she is furloughed now because our clinic is closed.
MassimoFaggioli From one coronavirus filled environment to another.
By law they have to retain them and why not get some good pub whioe you are at it
This is not a feel good story here.
US airlines aren't doing it despite the picture of Delta. This is a garbage article meant to make airline industry that spent the last few years buying back stock look good. NPR is a capitalist mouth piece.
Love , as ChrisStapleton says, is MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD it cant BE BOUGHT & it CAN'T BE SOLD & n this COVID19 THIS is ever more TRUE spreadlove soledadobrien IngrahamAngle replouiegohmert NBSaphierMD realDonaldTrump SenSchumer n it W/ US ACT LIKE IT SpeakerPelosi DNC
can we get these planes in the air to any country, state, or place in the world that will get ventilators and ppe to nyc? can the planes and pilots then become first responders that fly in supplies wherever they are needed? airports may be the best distribution areas now.