Lufthansa has launched a campaign to hire 20,000 employees as the German airline giant recovers from the coronavirus pandemic and seeks to address staff shortages.
The airline suffered huge losses when the virus brought global air travel to a halt, but a recovery in demand has helped it return to profit this year.
Lufthansa said it is looking for new employees in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium, and for various positions – from pilots and flight attendants to technicians and IT specialists.
A company representative said some of those positions were newly created and some replaced employees who left.
“To be at the forefront of the industry, we need dedicated and motivated employees to take on different tasks and challenges,” said Chief Human Resources Officer Michael Niggemann.
According to data published in October, Lufthansa had 108,000 employees at the end of September. At the end of 2019, there were 138,000 of them before the pandemic.
Europe’s airlines are scrambling to hire new staff to cope with rising demand after many quit or were laid off during the pandemic.
Lufthansa, which cut thousands of jobs during the pandemic, faced a pilot and ground staff strike over the summer due to staff shortages and rising inflation.
The airline group subsequently agreed to pay increases for employees in several different areas.
Severe staff shortages – at Lufthansa, as well as at airports and other airlines – have contributed to months of chaos for passengers this year as people travel more as the pandemic eases.
In the third quarter, the airline group, which also includes Eurowings, Austrian, Swiss, and Brussels Airlines, reported healthy profits and said it had “put the pandemic behind us”.
Lufthansa suffered considerable losses in 2020 and 2021 and had to be bailed out by the German government, but the company said its financial position had stabilized earlier than expected.