Virgin Australia Pay Rates 2026: Cabin Crew & Ground Staff

Two modern awards sit under Virgin Australia's operational workforce:

• Aircraft Cabin Crew Award 2020 (MA000047) — flight attendants and onboard managers
• Airline Operations—Ground Staff Award 2020 (MA000048) — ramp, baggage, aircraft workers, engineering support and other ground roles

In practice, most Virgin operational staff are paid under enterprise agreements negotiated with the TWU, FAAA, ASU and other unions — the awards are the safety net those agreements must beat overall. The figures below are the award floor, not what Virgin actually pays under its agreements; the agreements themselves are linked further down.

From 1 July 2026, the Aircraft Cabin Crew Award adult minimums are:

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, rates operative from 1 July 2026. Casual employees add the standard 25% loading to these bases. On top of the base, cabin crew pay is built from flying allowances, overnight allowances and duty-period rules — an EA typically rolls these into its own rostered pay structure, which is why the agreement document, not the award table, answers "what will my fortnight actually pay?".

The Airline Operations—Ground Staff Award covers several classification streams. The aircraft worker stream, which takes in ramp, baggage and aircraft services roles, from 1 July 2026:

The award's other streams (clerical, technical and maintenance-adjacent) start between $26.96/hr and $28.24/hr at Level 1, an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer classification sits at $32.13/hr, and the technical scale runs to $37.99/hr at its top level — all per the same FWC pay database release. Casuals add 25% to the base.

Virgin bargains separately with each workgroup, so your pay document depends on your role. Agreements in our corpus include:

• Virgin Australia Regional Airlines Cabin Crew Agreement 2024 — approved July 2024, nominal expiry 29 July 2027
• Virgin Australia Regional Airlines Stores Enterprise Agreement 2025 — approved July 2025, nominal expiry 4 July 2029
• Virgin Australia & ASU — Guest Services & Guest Contact Centre Agreement 2023 — nominal expiry 30 June 2026
• Virgin Australia & TWU Pit Crew Enterprise Agreement 2023 — nominal expiry 30 June 2026

These agreements set rates above the award — the document itself is the source for your classification's actual dollars. Note the guest services and pit crew agreements passed their nominal expiry on 30 June 2026: they keep operating until replaced or terminated, but that's the point in the cycle where new bargaining (and back-dated pay rises) typically lands. If you're covered by one, watch for a proposed replacement agreement and vote on it.

Aviation pay disputes are rarely about the base rate — they're about the moving parts:

• Allowance underpayment — overnight, meal and duty allowances in an EA have their own qualifying rules. Cross-check a month of rosters against the allowance clauses in your agreement.
• Classification drift — supervising a cabin or a ramp crew intermittently should trigger higher-duties payment under most agreements.
• Expired-agreement drift — under an agreement past nominal expiry, base rates only move if negotiated. Your agreement rate must still beat the award floor above, which rises every 1 July.
• Part-time minimums — minimum engagement and rostering rules still bind, even in irregular flying rosters.

Get your agreement from the links above (or from the Fair Work Commission's agreements register), find your classification and increment, and compare it against three months of payslips with our back-pay calculator. Your union delegate or people team is the first stop; the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) handles both award and agreement underpayment, and six-year recovery applies.