Finnair Launches Largest Recruitment Drive in Company’s History

Finnair has launched the biggest recruitment drive in the company’s history.

In addition to the approximately 70 pilots and 130 cabin attendants recruited this year, the company is seeking to recruit 100 new pilots and 300 new cabin crew members.

Some 50 people are also being hired to perform customer service tasks and other functions during the spring.

In October, Finnair took delivery of its first of nineteen A350 XWB on order. The new wide-body aircraft are the engine of Finnair’s growth and will add capacity to its long-haul traffic from spring 2016 onwards. Increasing capacity also increases the need for personnel. Earlier this year, Finnair stated that growth translates to approximately 1000 new jobs by 2020.

"We are courageously driving the growth of our business and making recruitments which are significant in scale, not just for Finnair but for Finland," said Finnair’s SVP Human Resources Eija Hakakari. "Due to the nature of the flying personnel’s work and the scale of the recruitment it takes time to organize the selection process and trainings. We want to start early, keeping an eye especially on 2017 when our growth intensifies. At the same time, starting these recruitments gives us opportunities to grow even more courageously should the market situation allow it."

Recruitment of the flying personnel started on 4 December 2015. After the selections have been made, the training and employment for the different employee groups will begin in phases from spring 2016 onwards.

Finnair's strategic objective is to double its traffic between Asia and Europe by 2020 from the 2010 level.