Hiring Outlook Improving for Flight Attendants

The biggest and best news this year from the aviation sector was the announcement that Atlanta-based Delta Airlines will be hiring up to 1,000 new flight attendants. Delta, who recently merged with Northwest Airlines, is the first of the "legacy" airlines to hire flight attendants in recent years.

"Normally, after a merger, there is a lag in hiring as both work groups are absorbed into one." says Tim Kirkwood, author of The Flight Attendant Job Finder & Career Guide. "This hiring gives an optimistic trend to airline employment".

The industry has been trending up in 2010.

- International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported that passenger traffic climbed by 9.2 percent in July on an annual basis, with the Asia-Pacific region showing the highest gain at 10.9 percent. Also, cargo volume gained 22.7 percent.

- Boeing predicts that nearly half-a-million new pilots and almost 600,000 in support-staff will need to be trained over the next 20 years to accommodate higher travel demand '" up from about 233,000 pilots and 100,000 mechanics/engineers who are currently employed by airlines worldwide.

- Dahlman Rose's weekly airline and aircraft lessor report indicates most of the airlines continue to see double digit revenue growth for 3Q2010 and strong forward bookings at least through mid-November.

- Minneapolis Airlines/Airport Examiner reports August revenue continued to show double-digit increases at United Airlines, though the increase was slightly lower than in previous months. Passenger revenue rose by nearly 19 percent while the year-to-year capacity increase at the Chicago-based carrier was 1.7 percent. System-wide load factor for the month rose to 86.7 percent, an increase of 0.6 percent from a year ago.

While the legacy carriers are showing growth in employment needs, the Mid-Size and Regional airlines have been hiring pretty much non-stop. Virgin America, jetBlue, AirTran, SkyWest, Alaska, Pinnacle, Mesaba are only some of the companies looking for new in-flight crewmembers.

Applicants can see who is hiring in the US and Canada on Mr. Kirkwood's website, at www.FlightAttendantCareerGuide.com/jobs.cfm. He also recommends the page-after-page of all jobs available at www.AviaNation.com/student.

Contact info:

Tim Kirkwood, Author
The Flight Attendant Job Finder & Career Guide
Crew4jets@aol.com