As we know, employment in aviation has taken a toll since the pandemic. We already know that many staff were laid off during the pandemic when demand for flights was less. However, when pandemic restrictions were lifted, many airports and airlines struggled to cope with the subsequent surge in flight demand due to staff shortages due to the layoffs. As a result, there was initially mass congestion at airports, leading to mass flight delays and cancellations. This occurred to such a large extent that airports such as London Heathrow in the UK and Amsterdam’s Schiphol were forced into restricting flights, which no doubt hampered the industry’s post-pandemic recovery. So as one can see the situation with regards to staff has not been managed well.
Individual Airlines
Employment in Aviation has been managed well by certain individual airlines. British Airways, easyJet and TUI all took steps to limit their flights themselves to avoid the disruption felt by many at airports. In this way, they allowed enough time for staff to be re-recruited. Airlines such as Emirates have also hired sprees in places such as the US to increase staff numbers. It appears, therefore, that airlines are taking steps to recruit staff from the general public.
However, the situation has not completely improved for all airlines as problems ensured even after Covid. After the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian flag carrier Ukrainian International Airlines had to ground all its planes. As a result, staff were without work. Thankfully airBaltic entered into a wet lease agreement, meaning that it could effectively rent out staff from the airline to meet airBaltic’s post-pandemic staffing needs. So, as one can see, employment in aviation post-pandemic was being managed by quickly taking up opportunities given by other airlines and organisations re-recruiting themselves.
Nevertheless, the industry is having setbacks in terms of employment in aviation due to one problem after another. Singapore Airlines was, however, one of those airlines that anticipated that there would be staff shortages post-pandemic and, therefore, started re-recruiting in advance in preparation for this. As a result, the airline was quick to recover in terms of profitability and could expand further by filling gaps left by other airlines which had contracted in terms of their operations since the pandemic.
The Current Situation
According to the IATA, over the past decade before the pandemic, employment in aviation steadily improved before dropping dramatically during the pandemic in 2020. Since then, employment in aviation has improved by 1.8% in 2021, followed by 5.7% in 2022. This shows that the situation is improving in the industry and that the rate of improvement is also increasing. At the moment, the level of employment in both passenger and cargo airlines has recovered to 95% of its pre-Covid level.
The IATA, however, does comment on the fact that there is considerable variation in terms of employment in aviation between airlines in terms of the extent of problems caused by Covid and the post-pandemic recovery. It also adds that the recovery in employment across airlines has not been smooth, and there are ongoing labour and skills shortages and wage pressures.
As one see, the Covid pandemic has taken a toll on employment in aviation. It also appears that the recovery has not been smooth for everyone, possibly due to subsequent events such as the war in Ukraine in addition to what was, for the most part, unanticipated staff shortages and, therefore, an inability to deal with the post-pandemic surge in demand for flights. However, the situation is improving. We need to wait and see how this progresses.
What do you think about the current aviation employment situation? Is it improving at the required pace? Share your views in the comment section below!
