The decision follows the launch of V Australia's new twice-weekly flight from Johannesburg to Melbourne, Australia and high customer demand for capacity on the carrier's daily services between Johannesburg and London, UK, ahead of the recommencement of seasonal operations between Cape Town and London from 31 October.

The airline has been represented by general sales agent ACP Worldwide since it added South Africa to its route network in 1996, however, it has always employed its own operations team in Johannesburg.

Dan Parker, vice president - Commercial at Virgin Atlantic Cargo said: "We feel that now is the right time to take our presence in the South African market to the next level by employing our own dedicated 'Virgin People'.

This, along with V Australia's new flights from South Africa to Australia, marks the start of a new era for us in South Africa."

Laurn Baldwin has been appointed regional sales manager, South Africa for Virgin Atlantic Cargo, based in Johannesburg. During her career, she has worked for Aireps and also spent five years with ACP Worldwide, working on the Virgin account, before moving to Expeditors International in 2003 as a corporate account manager.

She is joined in the new Virgin Atlantic Cargo sales team by Jacque Parker, who formally worked for ACP.  Also joining the team are contact centre advisors Laura Richmond and Saloshni Pillay from ACP and Emirates Airline respectively. To support its growing schedule, Virgin has also increased its operations team in South Africa with the appointment of cargo officer Charles Payne, who joins Douglas MacDougall, operations manager.