Delta Air Lines announced on Tuesday that the company is looking to hire thousands of flight attendants. The airline plans to hire a total of 3000 flight attendants by the summer of 2022.
Initially, Delta was already processing 1500 new hires. With the current travel demand, Delta becomes the latest airline looking to expand its crew members. The airline plans to double its projected hiring target by adding another 1,500 flight attendants.
Delta Hiring 3000 Flight Attendants and More
Aside from hiring 3000 flight attendants by 2022, Delta is looking for additional pilots, ramp workers, and even customer service agents. CEO Gary Kelly said that the airline already hired 1,500 individuals for different positions. However, the goal is to hire 5,200 additional employees by the end of November.
The airline announced that they are only going to hire vaccinated individuals. The airline will also require any Delta employee accepted in their flight attendant training program to get vaccinated. Last week, Delta announced that unvaccinated employees will soon have to pay an additional $200 for health insurance. While Delta technically doesn’t have a COVID vaccine mandate, some companies such as United Airlines now require vaccination on its employees.
Travel Rebound and Staffing Shortages
Last year, airlines had to ask pilots and airline crew members to take voluntary leaves and early retirement packages. Around 4000 Delta flight attendants took the voluntary separation packages last year. This time around, this situation backfired as domestic travel bounced back.
With the vaccine rollout, the return of domestic travel happened faster than expected overwhelming the entire airline industry. Unfortunately, some airlines that had it particularly worse than others. Southwest Airlines, announced last week that it is going to trim its flight schedule to ease operational problems. On top of that, pilots and flight attendants from Southwest also claim that they are overworked. The Southwest pilots’ union announced that they are most likely going to picket if the airline fails to address their concerns.
