Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said today that the airline wants to hire 20,000 employees by the end of next year.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr spoke about the airline's hiring spree in a news briefing on Monday, seen by Reuters.
A spokesperson for the company, which operates a suite of airlines in Europe including Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings and Brussels Airlines, told Reuters it plans to create 12,000 new jobs and replace 8,000 staff who have left during the pandemic.
Lufthansa also confirmed the hiring plans to the online businessmagazine Insider, saying most of the positions will be in operational areas, including crews, ground staff, technical, and catering.
The Lufthansa Group is a worldwide operating aviation corporation which includes more than 550 subsidiaries and investment companies. Passenger transportation is the largest business segment of the Lufthansa Group and is carried out by the Lufthansa Passage, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings and Brussels Airlines. The Group’s route network is operated through its international hubs in Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna and Brussels.
Hiring in Aviation Ready to Take Off
Industry experts project that U.S. major airlines need to hire between 10,000 and 12,000 new flight crew, as well as about 14,500 pilots each year until 2050. The UK aviation sector has gone on a hiring spree, as recruiting has increased 42 percent year-on-year in July.
Singapore's aviation sector has to hire another 3,500 to 4,000 workers by the end of the year to cope with an expected surge in travelers during the winter period in the Northern hemisphere, said Transport Minister S Iswaran.
The boss of US low-fare carrier JetBlue has said it is necessary to over-hire staff because of the rate at which people are still leaving the industry.
"I now need to over-hire just to keep the number I need," JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes told the BBC. "With Covid, we lost a lot of experienced people," he added. By the end of 2022, half of JetBlue's employees would have been with the airline for less than two years.
Iceland Startup Airline PLAY airlines also plans to recruit many new employees. "Our biggest objectives this coming winter are receiving four new aircraft, which will be added to our fleet next year, and hiring more crew members. 300 great people are already working at PLAY and that group will be even bigger next year when we will hire 200 more,” Birgir Jonsson, PLAY‘s CEO, told AirlineJobs.com.
Cathay Pacific Airways is aiming to hire 400 cadet pilots by the end of next year as part of plans to boost manpower ahead of Hong Kong’s expected economic recovery and an increasing demand for flights in the region.