As demand for air travel strengthens, the daunting task of assembling and maintaining a skilled workforce is one that airports continue to grapple with. Tom Batchelor reports on the challenges and opportunities for airport staff recruitment and retention.
This article was originally published in the March 2024 issue of Regional Gateway. To receive articles and news directly to your inbox, apply for your complimentary subscription to Regional Gateway.
Life after Covid – Shortages of experienced airport staff
While the aviation industry has successfully overcome the worst of the post-pandemic bottlenecks, there remains a pressing need for highly trained personnel to fill positions from ground handling agents and security screening staff to air traffic controllers and senior management positions.
“For the likes of recruitment companies such as ourselves, we’ve never been busier,” says Ian Taylor, the CEO of Line Up Aviation.
A former Executive Vice President at the Spanish low-cost airline Vueling, which he helped found, Taylor says there are shortages at both ends of the market, with both junior and experienced airport staff needed to fill positions across various sectors.
Covid triggered an exodus of experienced personnel, many of whom were still more than five years off retirement age, while others who felt aviation was too “volatile” quit to find employment elsewhere. “Many airlines approached their staff and offered early retirement, and a lot of people took up that offer,” Taylor tells Regional Gateway. “Sadly, high numbers of experienced people were lost from the industry.”
That problem has since been compounded by a lack of urgency to train school leavers and apprentices, Taylor says.
“The industry has reduced recruiting and training new people, so there’s a big shortfall at the bottom end of the market. Not only that, but there has also been a large reduction of apprenticeships and technical training, which has also created shortages.”
Spotlight on security – Utilising security technology and local academies
In the UK, Bristol Airport experienced a rapid recovery from Covid, and passenger numbers are now up more than 10 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
But what People Director, Debbie Hartshorn, calls the “sudden ‘switch on’ of travel” after two years of restrictions presented challenges.
“We and our business partners had to recruit a large number of new people in a short period of time,” she says. “Due to the length of time that aviation was heavily restricted, we found that many people that had worked in the sector previously had moved on to other careers, so the experience just wasn’t there.”
Some 3,750 full-time equivalent people work at Bristol Airport for more than 50 companies, and the airport itself employs around 400 of these. The south-west of England’s primary hub has continued to face both a tight labour market and a strong growth in passengers through 2023.
In response, Hartshorn says her focus is on strengthening partnerships with colleges, schools, on-site business partners and the local authority to deliver employment opportunities.
“In 2024, we will move to the latest security technology as the UK government seeks to end the restrictions around liquids and electronics in carry-on luggage,” she says.
“Retraining existing security colleagues and recruiting the additional employees needed to run the new security procedures will be a focus for us in the coming months. We will also be kicking off our Employment and Skills Plan which is designed to promote science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) careers, and support local people into careers at the airport.”
The pressure on airport operators and the wider supply chain to find and retain staff has focused minds across the industry.
Keeping it real – Opportunities of recruitment days
One area that has caused recruitment delays for airport operators is security vetting, and in particular reference checking.
Stansted airport academy job recruitment fair.
Michael Spiers, Chief People Officer at London City Airport, says: “Relative to the risk and exposure of getting these things wrong, the extra time to hire is inevitable.”
He adds that the corporate travel-focused airport “works very hard to make sure we balance candidate expectations with the reality of the time it will take to start, and this mostly works. There have been bottlenecks in the past, but these haven’t been an issue for some time.”
That said, challenges remain. At London City, this is centred on specialist roles, including engineering and facilities management.
“One of the ways we’re aiming to tackle this challenge is through our annual ‘STEM in Aviation Day’ and Women in Aviation programme to encourage local students to study STEM subjects in school, providing them with a pathway to jobs in the sector,” says Spiers.
The same is true for Norwich Airport, where Managing Director, Richard Pace, says: “We work closely with applicants to manage expectations during the onboarding process around time frames while we wait for security checks to come through.
“Like all employers we are in a competitive jobs market but there is also something unique about working at an airport and that still has a certain appeal.
“And because we are a small regional airport there’s also a family feel about working here. So we have a good word of mouth reputation locally.”
Pace says that for some posts, Norwich Airport has a “surfeit of applications … rather than struggling to fill them”. So much so that his team has taken the decision not to hold its annual careers fair in February.
“Recruitment is going very well through our own channels,” he says.
Other regional airports continue to use this mechanism. More than 2,000 jobseekers attended Glasgow Airport’s 2024 Jobs Fair in January.
“The initial feedback from the campus colleagues who took part in the jobs fair is that the recruitment drive was very positive in terms of filling the vacancies they had, which ultimately puts the airport on a strong footing for the busy summer period,” says Ronald Leitch, interim Chief Operating Officer of AGS Airports, which owns Glasgow Airport.
Swedavia held similar events to fill an expected 500 vacancies across its Stockholm Arlanda and Landvetter sites. Catering supplier Gate Gourmet, ground handlers Menzies Aviation and security specialists Securitas were among the companies taking part.
“Last year’s recruitment day at Stockholm Arlanda was a tremendous success that led to the recruitment of a large number of new employees, both for us and our partners at the airports,” says Marie Wiksborg, Director of Business Support at Swedavia.
“It’s great to have the opportunity to gather together many of our fantastic employers and potential new airport employees at Sweden’s two largest airports during our open recruitment days, which we are investing in even more heavily this year.”
Taking action – Stansted’s support in the growth of airport education
Stansted Airport runs an employment and skills academy in partnership with nearby Harlow College, which aims to prepare job seekers for employment at one of more than 200 on-site employers by providing them with skills they can use when seeking employment at the airport.
The academy also offers courses for airport employees in over 30 subjects, such as mental health awareness, customer service, counselling skills, and dementia care.
Marcella M’Rabety, Head of Education, Skills and Employment at the Essex airport, says: “Since opening in 2015, Aerozone, the purpose-built aviation and airport educational facility, has welcomed more than 20,000 students.
“Along with the Aerozone and on-site Stansted Employment and Skills Academy, the college is the cornerstone of London Stansted’s commitment to supporting education, employment, and training.”
“In 2019, the first UK aviation college located at a major UK airport, Stansted Airport College, which is run by Harlow College, welcomed its first students.
Once on board, staff are offered perks including public transport discounts of up to 80 per cent, discounts on airport retail, free holiday parking, and free skills and training courses.
Global challenge – Worldwide worries on airport staff shortages
The lack of skilled workers is not just affecting European businesses.
“We’ve got shortages in the Middle East and the Far East,” says Ian Taylor of Line Up Aviation. “In North America there is a massive shortage of pilots and engineers.
“Before [Covid] you could put out an advert and you’d get 40 applicants and half of them were really good. Now if you put out an advert you’ll be lucky to get two applicants and they may not be qualified to do the job.
“The whole dynamic of finding good people has shifted. Now it is more head-hunting based. We use very smart technology, which encompasses AI and algorithms, to hone down on the right group of people to contact for possible positions.”
The challenge facing regional airports is even more acute, according to Taylor.
“You have a smaller pool to fish in to get the skill sets that you need for a regional airport. If you
need someone at Heathrow, for example, there are a lot of people in that catchment area that will apply, and you can have people from Luton and Gatwick applying because it is a commutable journey. At regional airports, you’ve then got a smaller catchment area.”
A lack of ground transport connectivity for commuting staff can be problematic for regional airports in particular. Many operational roles are shift-based or seasonal, which can be difficult for those with caring responsibilities, and more challenging in terms of public transport timetables.
To get around this, Bristol Airport has taken the decision to have higher workforce costs across the year to ensure that they have adequate staffing levels for their peak periods.
Even for well-connected London City Airport, this is a concern. “Many of our workforce need to get to the airport for 4am, so we need more public transport options available at earlier times for our staff,” says Spiers.
“Before [Covid] you could put out an advert and you’d get 40 applicants and half of them were really good. Now if you put out an advert you’ll be lucky to get two applicants and they may not be qualified to do the job.”
Ian Taylor
CEO of Line Up Aviation.
Meeting the skills challenge –The future of the aviation industry
Last summer saw the launch of a UK-led global taskforce to address skills challenges in the aviation sector.
The new worldwide Global Aviation and Aerospace Skills Taskforce initiative will help the industry understand and build the workforce of the future.
It will look at the skills challenges facing the sector, including attracting young people, diversity and equity, upskilling for emerging technologies, and other areas of change impacting the sector.
Think different – Initiating incentives for airport staff
Retention remains the key challenge. Changi Airport Group, which manages Singapore’s primary hub as well as the regional airport, Seletar Airport, has implemented a ‘four day work and one day innovation’ work model for airport staff.
This company-wide arrangement has reorganised the working week to make Fridays solely dedicated to innovation, in an effort to improve workplace wellbeing as well as encouraging staff to think differently about their jobs.
Meanwhile, Spiers says that while most airports, including London City, remain “very competitive on pay and benefits relative to their local competition”, that alone does not solve the problem.
“Listening to the things that employees talk about in engagement surveys and implementing the fixes and ideas they ask for creates a stronger bond to the workplace,” he says.
“It is also worth considering generational norms too. Previous generations sought roles for life and final salary pensions were just some of the tools that supported that mindset.
“Younger generations have a different view and see their tenure with a business in much shorter time frames generally. Hence retention data is really only useful in the zero to two-year time frame.
“Attracting candidates who want to play a part in making air travel more sustainable and green will push us to really highlight the good work we are all doing and encourage people to join us and contribute to that change.”
From the ground up – Creating new work standards for airport staff
A 2023 International Air Transport Association (IATA) survey found that 60 per cent of ground handling professionals felt they didn’t have enough qualified staff to ensure smooth operations, while 27 per cent of respondents feared that their current employees would leave soon.
IATA has launched a Ground Ops Training Passport which supports staff retention and professional growth, with mutually recognised skills and training across ground handlers, airlines, and airports to encourage cross-utilisation of skilled personnel.
Additionally, IATA has outlined a series of initiatives to help alleviate labour shortages.
According to Monika Mejstrikova, IATA’s Director of Ground Operations: “We need to embrace automation to relieve airport staff from difficult and hazardous tasks, foster a culture of continuous learning and career growth, and create a safe and inclusive environment for people where talents are nurtured.”
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