Virgin Australia is fighting to stay afloat and critics say it shouldn’t be up to the Federal Government to bailout the airline.

But if Virgin disappears from our skies it will increase costs for customers and thousands of local pilots could lose their jobs according to the Vice President of Australian Federation of Air Pilots.

“It’s about pilot jobs in Australia. That’s what we’re really concerned about at the Federation; we represent 5,500 pilots, a lot of those guys are stood down right now,” Captain George Kailis told 6PR Breakfast.

“What we want to see coming out the other side of this is a really competitive airline system… keep the airfares competitive and jobs for Australian pilots.”

Click PLAY to hear the full interview.