Germany’s Lufthansa Group is going on a massive hiring spree with plans to hire as many as 13,000 new employees in 2024, adding to the airline’s already huge post-pandemic recruitment drives in 2023 and 2022.
The majority of the open positions that need filling are for flight attendants and pilots at various airlines across the Lufthansa Group, including its namesake mainline brand, as well as Austrian and SWISS.
Controversially, the airline is also busy hiring pilots and flight attendants for yet another new subsidiary called Lufthansa City Airlines, which will operate short-haul flights on behalf of the German flag carrier using Airbus A320 series aircraft.
The new subsidiary is so contentious because it is hiring crew members on lower pay and with fewer benefits than their peers at the mainline Lufthansa brand. City Airlines is just one of several similar subsidiaries created by Lufthansa in recent years to drive down labour costs.
In total, around 3,500 new flight attendants will be hired over the next 12 months, while 1,000 pilot positions need to be filled, along with 2,000 engineering roles and 900 IT experts. The Group also plans to hire around 800 engineering trainees.
Despite facing criticism over its cost-cutting measures, Lufthansa executive board member Michael Niggemann insisted that the group is focused on “being an attractive employer”.
“After all, it is our colleagues in the air and on the ground who are there for our passengers every day and give our brands and companies a face,” Niggemann commented on Monday.
The need to hire so many new staff across the aviation industry following pandemic-era travel restrictions is one of the reasons why many airlines around the world have been struggling to meet the customer service standards they were once renowned for.
The Lufthansa Group also hired around 13,000 new employees in 2023, but there’s no let-up for the airline’s recruitment teams, who remain under pressure to match staffing levels with recession-defying travel demand.
