Stansted Airport is expecting a busy summer and has started recruiting with its first in-person jobs fair in two years.
In October 2020, more than 370 people lost their jobs at the airport, after a really difficult summer.
However, now expecting a surge in travellers, the airport held a recruitment day, in search of more than 300 staff.
External providers who work with the airport all attended, looking for new workers, in readiness for the summer. The airport saw more than 1.3 million passengers last October (2021) before a rise in Omicron cases.
“This is absolutely us on our road to recovering,” said Liz Austin, HR director. “We are expecting to have passenger numbers at pre-pandemic numbers for the summer so this is absolutely about us being back, and being here, and being in business.”
The airport is looking for security guards, ground handlers and retail staff. This is especially after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the final bout of Covid restrictions will end a month earlier than planned.
Ryan Air attended the event. The airline announced a recruitment drive late last year for hundreds of cabin crew staff, as it expected more people to want to go on holiday.
At the time, Mark Duffy, Ryanair’s deputy director HR – head of talent, said: “These exciting opportunities offer candidates the chance to secure the best cabin crew jobs in aviation and work with Europe’s largest airline, where hard work is rewarded with fast track career opportunities.”
After two years of comparatively very little travel, the aviation industry is seeing a surge in people who want to go on holiday, as the expensive testing restrictions on travellers have ended.
Luton Airport has also started a consultation to expand its capacity to 32 million passengers a year.
And there are 54 positions available at Norwich Airport for check-in and security staff before summer starts.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects to see a boom in the industry. It has projected a reduction in industry losses for 2022 across the world. Furthermore, the number of international travel numbers are expected to reach almost half or close to pre-pandemic levels.
Feyaza Khan has been a journalist for more than 20 years in print and broadcast. Her special interests include neurodiversity in the workplace, tech, diversity, trauma and wellbeing.
