Australia’s national carrier is on the hunt for 8500 aviation industry workers in the next 10 years as it progressively boosts its aircraft fleet to meet demand for travel.

Some 2000 of those jobs – for cabin crew, pilots, engineers and other operations roles – will be created in the next 18 months, Qantas announced on Friday.

Qantas has 23,500 employees and projects that number will grow to 32,000 by 2033 to support the expected delivery of 299 narrowbody and 12 widebody planes across the same period.

“We order aircraft up to 10 years in advance, so we need to think similarly long-term about the people and skills we need to operate them,” CEO Alan Joyce said in a statement.

“Over the next 18 months, we expect to create more than 2000 new jobs plus replacing natural attrition, so if you’ve ever wanted to work in aviation or at the national carrier, now’s a great time to join.”

Qantas has also announced it will set up a Qantas Group Engineering Academy in Australia to train up to 300 engineers a year for itself and the broader aviation industry.

It will need about 200 engineering recruits a year in the next 10 years.

“Aviation is so important to a country like Australia and you need a big skills pipeline to power it,” Mr Joyce said.

“We look forward to working with the industry, training organisations, unions and governments to finalise details for the engineering academy.”

The academy’s location will be settled by the end of this year.

Overall, Qantas is seeking 4500 cabin crew, 1600 pilots, 800 engineers and 1600 other workers for operational roles in the next decade.

The post ‘A great time to join’: Qantas on big recruitment drive appeared first on The New Daily.