The AeroProfessional Cabin Crew Survey 2021

Here at AeroProfessional we’ve conducted an Autumn survey of over 5000 of our cabin crew candidates to understand their readiness to return to work post Covid-19, and the result are in… 

After a turbulent 2020 and an uncertain 2021, the aviation industry has begun its journey back to normality. Due to the significant passenger traffic, there is data suggesting a quicker recovery of the aviation sector than many expected, resulting in a significant increase in the need for crew, both in volume and timescale. The preparation for 2022 airline recruitment has certainly begun, with major recruitment drives specifically in roles such as cabin crew.  

As specialists in the recruitment and provision of Cabin Crew, AeroProfessional have reached out to our extensive network of cabin crew candidates and conducted a survey to find out key information that will influence any intake of crew, such as how many crew hold valid attestation and medicals, whether those are EASA or UK CAA (as Brexit is now a major influencing factor), if crew have full Covid-19 vaccination status and also start date availability. Such intelligence will be critical to assist our clients with their hiring planning and strategy.  

 The Key Headlines: 

• Within the UK, 91% of candidates are fully vaccinated against Covid 19, whilst in Europe the number is 86%; 
• In Europe 86% of candidates hold both a valid attestation and medical, with 78% of UK cabin crew holding both 

What does this tell us? 

We are seeing many operators around the world mandating full vaccination, including Wizz Air, Virgin Australia and Swiss, so vaccination status is becoming one of the most important requirements when hiring. We also need to consider that many cabin crew may have let their attestations and medicals expire, especially when our survey suggests that 37% of cabin crew had to move to another job type or sector due to the pandemic. This will increase training requirements and therefore needs to be built into planning. 

What else do we know? 

• Crucially, 27% of UK Cabin Crew and 34% of EU cabin crew are available to start a new role immediately.  
• Nearly 50% of EU candidates are totally flexible on the length of contract they would take, whilst that number is 44% in the UK. 

This information suggests we have a large pool of candidates who are ready and willing to start a new role right away, and this pool goes up significantly when we factor in that on average a further 21% of candidates are available within 2 weeks. 

How AeroProfessional are using these results: 

 As the Cabin Crew Experts, AeroProfessional have always been on the leading edge of cabin crew recruitment. Armed with the results of our survey, we are more prepared than ever to help our clients with their cabin crew recruitment needs. If you are looking to hire cabin crew then speak to our team now by clicking here.