Since the relaxation of China's pandemic prevention and control policies, the civil aviation market has returned to its former bustling scene. In March, the actual number of passenger flights flown domestically exceeded 360,000, an increase of 133% compared to the same period in 2022, exceeding the same period before the epidemic in 2019. International and regional routes flew 18,000 passenger flights, an increase of 471% compared to the same period in 2022.
Under this background, airline personnel recruitment, which has been put on hold for a long time due to the epidemic, has also started intensively in recent times.
According to public reports, since the end of 2022, Hainan Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Spring Airlines, Lucky Air, Capital Airlines, Fuzhou Airlines, and other airlines have announced their recruitment plan.
The available positions are mainly concentrated in front-line positions such as flight attendants, security personnel, and ground support personnel. In order to attract suitable candidates to join, some airlines offer a maximum annual salary of 330,000 yuan (US $48,000) for flight attendants.
Drop in the number of flight attendants
The data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) showed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a decrease of 11% in the total number of flight attendants in China. This means around 11,000 cabin crew members left the job from the pre-pandemic level of 108,955 in 2019.
The main reason the cabin crews left their jobs is the significant income decrease. In China, a large part of cabin crew's salary comes from flight hours.
Taking Juneyao Airlines as an example, the basic monthly salary of Juneyao Airlines cabin crew is between 3,000 and 6,000 yuan (US $436 - $871), and they can get about 15,000 yuan (US $2,178) per month for flight hours before the epidemic.
Due to the sharp decrease in the number of flight hours, cabin crew in the low season can only live on a basic salary. Some cabin crew who can't support themselves have to be forced to resign and find another way.
Find more news about Asian aviation here.
The need for cabin crew surges
The demand for flight attendants has always been high in airlines. Among all types of positions in airlines, the flight attendant is the largest, followed by ground service personnel and maintenance personnel.
The three major Chinese state-owned airlines' financial reports show that by the end of 2021, the number of cabin crew in the three companies was over 20,000, accounting for 22%-27% of the total number of their employees.
With the acceleration of the civil aviation market recovery, one of the priorities of the airlines' recruitment is flight attendants, to make up for the staff shortage of aircrews.
Hainan Airlines even has launched a special recruitment for cabin crew who can speak a foreign language. Hainan Airlines offered 180 positions for cabin crew who can speak a foreign language, including 164 in English, five in French, and viein Italian, and requires an educational background in English and related minor languages.