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Qantas wants you: The airline is desperately looking for new pilots and cabin crew: “Now is a good time to join”
Australia’s national airline is on the hunt for 8,500 aviation industry workers over the next 10 years as it scales up its fleet of aircraft to meet travel demand.
Some 2,000 of those jobs – for cabin crew, pilots, engineers and other operations roles – will be created over the next 18 months, Qantas announced on Friday.
Qantas currently has 23,500 employees and projects that number to grow to 32,000 by 2033 to support the expected delivery of 299 narrow-body and 12 wide-body aircraft over the same period.
“We order aircraft up to 10 years in advance, so we need to think similarly long-term about the people and skills we need to operate them,” chief executive Alan Joyce said in a statement.
Qantas is looking to rehire cabin crew who have quit or lost their jobs due to the Covid pandemic
“Over the next 18 months, we expect to create more than 2,000 new jobs in addition to replacing wear and tear, so if you’ve ever wanted to work in aviation or the national airline, now is a great time to join.”
Qantas has also announced that it will establish a Qantas Group Engineering Academy in Australia to train up to 300 engineers a year for itself and the broader aviation industry.
You will need about 200 new engineering employees a year for the next 10 years.
“Aviation is very important to a country like Australia and it takes a huge pool of skills to drive it forward,” Joyce said.
“We look forward to working with industry, training organisations, unions and governments to finalize the details of the engineering academy.”
The location of the academy will be decided later this year.
Overall, Qantas is seeking 4,500 cabin crew, 1,600 pilots, 800 engineers and 1,600 other workers for operational roles over the next decade.
Qantas boss Alan Joyce (pictured at the Australian Open last month) recently declared that the airline was “returning to its prime”.