The first locally recruited and trained cabin crew members will graduate today at Virgin Australia’s newly established Adelaide base.

The 24 participants have spent the past seven weeks being trained and tested in safety and emergency procedures, aviation regulations and medicine and the very best in customer service.

Virgin Australia Chief Customer Officer Mark Hassell said: “At Virgin Australia we pride ourselves on offering award-winning service and our rigorous Cabin Crew training program plays an integral role in our success.

“We are especially excited about these graduates, as they are the first cabin crew to be recruited and trained in Adelaide, which benefits our business and the greater Adelaide community.

“These new team members have been selected for their motivation and commitment to excel and we expect them to put our customers at the heart of everything they do”, Mr Hassell said.

Adelaide plays an important role in Virgin Australia’s expanding domestic network, with more than 40 flights arriving and departing from the airport daily.

By opening a cabin crew base in Adelaide the airline was able to bring approximately 80 new jobs to South Australia.

Today’s graduates will join Virgin Australia’s increasing workforce, which includes seven new pilots who graduated from the cadet program in Adelaide in December and a further eight cadet pilots studying at Flight Training Adelaide.

The new Adelaide based cabin crew can look forward to flying on board Virgin Australia’s Boeing 737 and Embraer 190 aircraft travelling to all mainland state capitals as well as popular tourist destinations including the Gold Coast and Denpasar, Indonesia.