With aircraft, certification, and much of your infrastructure sorted,
the final parts of the puzzle to starting an airline still need to be fitted. Attention
must now focus on having adequate levels of suitably experienced and trained staff in place.
In today’s video, let’s look at the staff recruitment process of starting an airline.
It is often said that good staff can be found at the core of any successful
business. Airlines are no exception. With a team of loyal, enthusiastic,
and contented employees, your airline will have a solid foundation with the potential to grow.
While some staff will come to your airline already trained,
others will be recruited for what they can offer once their training is complete. Either way,
the purpose of your recruitment drive is to entice industry professionals to join you.
During this series, we have seen how having a high-quality, resilient,
hardworking workforce will benefit your airline.
From recruiting critical managerial staff to deciding how your airline
will secure support services, all of these elements will
combine to influence whether a potential recruit will wish to join your airline.
Indeed, the airline brand, its operation, and the passenger experience will also be
contributing factors. Ultimately it will be your job to ensure that your airline,
its culture, and its style is something that potential employees would like to be a part of.
Regardless of the experience and expertise required to carry out any
task within the airline, each function should be valued as highly as the next,
all of which combine to ensure your airline runs smoothly, efficiently, and profitably.
Where this is the case, and every single employee can be justified,
your staffing levels are correct.
If a function becomes redundant or is not meeting
the predetermined goals for which the incumbent staff member was recruited,
then further consideration may be required. This should, however, always be a last resort.
Redundancies should only occur where market conditions drastically change, or an error
has been made further up the management chain regarding headcount requirements.
The airline industry is volatile and is often subjected to worldwide events that
alter its course. This has been seen time and time again over the decades.
From energy crises to war to terrorism - all
sorts of global events may threaten your airline’s ability to operate.
Such events historically lead to a drop in demand, and overstaffing is often a consequence.
Regrettably, airlines have often had to remain flexible and adapt to survive. This
has often led to staff members being either furloughed or, in the worst cases, laid off.
The task of any airline manager will be to ensure that there are enough employees to
enable the airline to function without having excess numbers of employees at any given time.
Never underestimate this task either, as every day
your airline has too many employees represents a cost to the business.
Although there is a multitude of roles to be filled when recruiting for a new airline,
let’s take a look at the key areas that your attention should be focused
on as you build up toward launching your airline and finally starting operations.
In terms of office-based roles, you should have experienced and
knowledgable employees in the following areas:
Human Resources Marketing
Inflight Services Customer Services
Procurement Planning
Engineering Finances
Public Relations IT
Legal Affairs Flight Operations
And of course, many, many more that we didn’t mention.
Don’t forget about airport-based management roles too - such as Station Managers, and Duty Managers.
Additionally, keep in mind that some roles will require proper
certification and licensing - if not years of experience!
There are trade-offs when it comes to hiring experienced personnel versus
those new to the field who are eager to learn.
Having experienced staff will have the obvious benefits of reducing your
airline's overall training costs. There are operational roles where
previous experience is undoubtedly an asset, such as cabin crew and flight operations.
There will also be many roles where, although previous experience would be beneficial,
it might not be essential to carry out the job. For such positions,
you might consider establishing in-house training programs to bring new recruits up to speed.
Similarly, with administrative and backroom office-based functions,
your heads of department should generally bring previous experience to the job so
that this experience can filter through their departments to the less experienced staff members.
With any position with your airline, nurturing and recognizing talent will be essential in
staff retention. Recruitment and training of new staff cost money,
so in your early years as a startup operator, recruiting experienced
staff can have multiple benefits and so should be pursued as much as possible.
Before launching a full recruitment drive, you are required to appoint individuals approved by
your certification authority into your senior operational management roles.
These roles include (but are not limited to) chief pilot, fleet manager, safety manager,
chief engineer, flight operations director, and head of cabin crew. As these are vital
roles of responsibility for your airline, they should be filled as soon as possible.
The next critical task will be to fill the primary Human Resources department that will
coordinate and run the recruitment drive: The process of recruiting suitably qualified and
ideally suited staff can be intensive both in terms of the time required and the short time
scales often involved, mainly if your airline is working to a tight schedule before launch.
Having an adequately staffed Human Resources department capable of running an effective
and attractive recruitment campaign and then the processing of perhaps hundreds
of applications will be essential if you are to fill the various positions at your airline,
both operational and non-operational, whether they be management or entry-level employees.
While some positions with an airline will not affect the operational side
of the business if they are vacant for a short period, others will. Pilots,
cabin crew, and engineers are all at the core of your airline’s operations.
Airlines tend to flight crew and cabin crew based on the number of aircraft in their fleet.
For example, in its planning process, a certain European-based low-cost carrier has always used
a ratio of six complete sets of crew (flight crew plus cabin crew) for every aircraft in its fleet.
Such a number may sound high (and expensive),
but to keep the fleet in the sky and allow for time off, leave, sickness,
and unforeseen personal events, six is actually not that unreasonable and not uncommon.
You must also bear in mind that many airline roles require the holder to undertake regular
re-evaluation to ensure that they are still capable of carrying out the job safely.
Regular flight checks are required for the flight crew to keep your
air operators license and type ratings valid. Generally, these are annual checks,
usually carried out in a simulator but occasionally in the actual aircraft.
With type ratings, there is line training, where a training captain supervises the pilot
under live operational conditions flying passenger flights, or airlines also carry out base training.
Base training is used mainly for new pilot recruits,
where one of the airline’s planes is despatched with training captains and
often several new recruits onboard to carry out approach and landing exercises
at a quieter airfield. This type of activity is usually located away from built-up areas,
at airfields equipped with very long runways to allow for less than perfect landing techniques!
As with all businesses, the ability to recruit and keep staff will be
a function of job satisfaction plus a proper level of remuneration - or pay.
Working for an airline is often seen as a vocation or a ‘calling,’ if you will. People
want to work for airlines for various reasons, which should be embraced. Yet,
disharmony and disillusionment can occur if staff needs are downplayed or dismissed.
As with all employers, you must offer an attractive salary and benefits package
to draw the strongest applicants to your airline.
Benefits such as pension schemes, death-in-service payments, annual leave
allowances, and possibly health insurance will all be common elements of a benefits package.
However, you may wish to go beyond the industry norms to attract the most outstanding candidates.
One particular way of attracting applications to your airline traditional to the airline industry
is by offering concessionary staff travel benefits. These have long been considered
the leading ‘perks’ of working in the air travel industry. Most airlines provide travel
benefits to their own staff, but many also offer discounted fares to family members of employees.
Although a large majority of concessionary fares are offered strictly on standby or
‘space available’ basis, some airlines even offer special fares to their staff on a ‘firm’ basis.
While the standby fares Can be as low as just 10% of the standard base fare plus taxes,
discount fares can also represent a hefty discount on the published fare.
Add to this benefit the availability of travel industry discounts for airline
staff at major hotel chains, car hire suppliers, and other hospitality venues around the world,
and you have a potentially attractive benefits package
that can prove alluring to potential applicants during a recruitment drive.
With a dedicated team of employees in place,
all striving toward making your new airline venture a success, you will now be on your
final approach to the launch date and, at last, the commencement of operations.
Ready to present your new venture to the travel industry and the public alike,
the most exciting element of starting your new airline is now well within touching distance.
We hope you’ll join us next time as we run through the momentous occasion of
your airline finally taking to the air and operating revenue-earning flights
in How To Start An Airline: Part 11 - Launch Events And Inaugural Flights.