Australian flag carrier Qantas is going on a massive hiring spree with plans to recruit 2,300 new pilots, flight attendants and engineers over the next 18 months and longer-term plans to hire 30,000 frontline workers over the next 10 years.
As the carrier continues to recover from the aftereffects of the pandemic, chief executive Alan Joyce said on Friday that Qantas was now looking ahead to the next decade and beyond for its recruitment needs.
“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,” Joyce commented. “Over that period of time, we’ll create an estimated 8,500 new aviation jobs in Australia, and most of those jobs require years of training.”
“In the near term, we’re gearing up to meet the growth in all of the markets we serve. We have more aircraft arriving every month, and that means we need more pilots, engineers, cabin crew and others,” Joyce continued.
Up to 150 cabin crew will attend a new training facility in Longreach every day as part of the airline’s ambitious growth plans. New hire cabin crew receive around 240 hours worth of training in their first six months, while Qantas expects a 50%+ increase in cabin crew training sessions compared to pre-pandemic.
But while Qantas is busy recruiting and training its next generation of pilots and cabin crew, the airline will have to rely on a fleet of 22 wet-leased aircraft hired from third-party airlines to fill gaps in leisure travel, freight and the resources industry.
